Treatment of HCV in renal transplant patients with peginterferon and ribavirin: long-term follow-up.

BACKGROUND

In addition to the observation of an increased viremia among patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who undergo renal transplantation, fibrosis and necroinflammatory activity have been noted to worsen comparing pre- and post-renal transplantation liver biopsies in some of these patients. Apart from the reported reduced patient and allograft survival rates, post-transplant diabetes mellitus, de novo glomerulonephritis, and an increased overall risk of infection have been observed. However, antiviral therapy for HCV is generally considered contraindicated among patients with solid organ transplants, with the main worry being the risk of acute rejection in relation to the use of interferon. We reported the long-term outcome of four renal transplant patients with chronic HCV infection who received peginterferon-based therapy.

METHODS

We collected the long-term follow-up data of four patients who completed the therapy with peginterferon in combination with ribavirin. Two of them had renal impairment at baseline.

RESULTS

With treatment, they had a significant improvement in terms of serum liver transaminase level, and two patients achieved the early virological response and the other two rapid virological response. All four patients achieved sustained virological response, with neither HCV flare up nor renal dysfunction during follow-up for a mean duration of 74.3 months after therapy.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that sustained HCV virological response may be achieved without allograft dysfunction, in selected renal transplant patients using a peginterferon-based therapy.