CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C VIRUS-INFECTIONS - PREDICTIVE VALUE OF GENOTYPE AND LEVEL OF VIREMIA ON DISEASE PROGRESSION AND RESPONSE TO INTERFERON-ALPHA

The effects of hepatitis C virus genotype and viraemia on disease outc ome in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection were studied. Patients infected with genotype 1 tended to develop more severe disea se, and to respond less well to interferon (IFN) treatment, but no pre treatment variable successfully predicted either the severity of the d isease or the response to IFN. Failure to eliminate the virus during t he first three months of therapy, however, predicted a failure to deri ve long term benefit from the current IFN regime. Hence pretreatment v ariables cannot be used to determine whether individual patients will respond to IFN, but observations during the first three months of ther apy can be used to decide which patients will not respond to prolonged therapy. In these patients consideration should be given to changing the IFN dosing regime or using alternative treatments.