COMBINED ALPHA-INTERFERON AND RIBAVIRIN TREATMENT IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C - A PILOT-STUDY

16 patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection were treate d with a combination of interferon-alpha and ribavirin for 24 weeks in an open study. One patient declined further treatment due to depressi on after week 16 and did not complete further follow-up. A moderate de cline was observed in hemoglobin and an increase in bilirubin level bo th reversible after discontinuing the treatment. 24 weeks after treatm ent cessation 9/15 (60%) evaluable patients had complete clearance of HCV-RNA as measured with PCR. HCV genotype did not seem to be correlat ed with response, but patients with sustained response to treatment ha d a significantly reduced number of HCV RNA copies/ml serum at treatme nt start compared with the other patients. These findings support the promising results of this combination therapy noted in other pilot stu dies.