Mazzaro Cesare, Panarello Giacomo, Mauro Endri, Gattei Valter, Pozzato Gabriele
Department of Oncology-Haematology CRO, IRCCS, Aviano, Italy.
Department of Nephrology, Pordenone General Hospital, Pordenone, Italy.
Dig Liver Dis. 2015 Jul;47(7):613-6. doi: 10.1016/j.dld.2015.03.020. Epub 2015 Mar 31.
The most frequent form of renal involvement in patients with hepatitis C infection is cryoglobulinemic membrano-proliferative glomerulonephritis. Nonetheless, some reports indicate that the eradication of the hepatitis C virus may also lead to the remission of this renal disease.
The virological, immunological and nephrological response to pegylated interferon α plus ribavirin (48 weeks in patients infected with genotype 1, and 24 weeks for patients infected with genotypes 2 and 3) was evaluated retrospectively in 10 patients with cryoglobulinemic glomerulonephritis.
6 patients obtained end of treatment virological response (60%); during follow-up, 2 relapsed, and 4 patients maintained a sustained virological response (40%). At the end of follow-up, three patients obtained a significant nephrological response and decrease in cryoglobulin levels (p<0.05). No significant changes in clinical and biological parameters were observed in non-responders/relapsers.
Eradication of hepatitis C may be associated with the regression of cryoglobulinemic glomerulonephritis.
