Akbar Hisham O, Al Ahwal Mahmoud S
Department of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah P.O.Box 80215, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
J Sci Res Med Sci. 2002 Apr;4(1-2):9-13.
To assess whether a combination of pegylated interferon (interferon conjugated with polyethylene glycol) and ribavirin can improve the response rate in patients with chronic hepatitis C who either did not respond to (Non-responders), or had relapsed after responding to (Relapsers) standard interferon and ribavirin combination therapy.
In this prospective study, 20 chronic hepatitis C patients (comprising 16 Non-responders and 4 Relapsers to previous treatment with alpha interferon and ribavirin), were treated with pegylated interferon-2b weekly and ribavirin daily for one year. Eleven patients had genotype 4, eight were of genotype 1 and one patient had genotype 3. Response to treatment was determined based on normalisation of liver enzymes and negative viral load (assessed using qualitative HCV RNA PCR) at end of treatment (ETR) and 6 months off treatment (SVR).
Seven patients (35%) achieved normalisation of liver enzymes and negative viral load at the end of treatment. However, only 2 patients (10%) managed to retain these levels after six months off treatment. The latter two patients had been previous Relapsers.
Combination of pegylated interferon and ribavirin may be beneficial in previous relapsers with standard interferon-ribavirin combination therapy, but is unlikely to achieve sustained virological response in non-responders.
评估聚乙二醇化干扰素（与聚乙二醇结合的干扰素）和利巴韦林联合使用是否能提高对标准干扰素和利巴韦林联合治疗无反应（无反应者）或反应后复发（复发者）的慢性丙型肝炎患者的反应率。
在这项前瞻性研究中，20例慢性丙型肝炎患者（包括16例对先前α干扰素和利巴韦林治疗无反应者和4例复发者）接受每周一次聚乙二醇化干扰素-2b和每日一次利巴韦林治疗，为期一年。11例患者为基因型4，8例为基因型1，1例患者为基因型3。根据治疗结束时（ETR）和停止治疗6个月时（SVR）肝酶正常化和病毒载量阴性（使用定性HCV RNA PCR评估）来确定治疗反应。
7例患者（35%）在治疗结束时肝酶正常化且病毒载量阴性。然而，停止治疗6个月后，只有2例患者（10%）维持了这些水平。后两名患者为先前的复发者。
聚乙二醇化干扰素和利巴韦林联合使用可能对先前接受标准干扰素-利巴韦林联合治疗的复发者有益，但不太可能使无反应者实现持续病毒学应答。
