ENDOGENOUS INTERFERON-ALPHA CONCENTRATION AND OUTCOME OF INTERFERON TREATMENT IN PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC HEPATITIS-C

To verify its value with regard to the outcome of therapy in chronic h epatitis C, serum interferon-alpha (IFN) was measured by ELISA in 70 p atients (43 male, 27 female) with chronic hepatitis C, treated with IF N 9 MU/week subcutaneously for up to one year. Serum IFN was detectabl e in 49/70 patients, 16 of whom had IFN values > 125 pg/ml. Only 1/22 patients who maintained a sustained response six months after the end of treatment had pretreatment serum IFN > 125 pg/ml, in comparison to 15/48 patients who did not respond or who relapsed (chi(2) 6.1, P < 0. 02). At multivariate analysis the predictive value of serum IFN was in dependent of age, sex, presence of cirrhosis, infection by genotype Ib (improvement chi(2) 7.1, P < 0.01). In patients with chronic hepatiti s C, measurement of serum IFN at baseline might be useful for the sele ction of patients with higher probability of long-term response.