Alavian S M, Foroutan Pishbijary H, Mirmomen S, Ghofrani H, Kabir A. EFFICACY AND SAFETY OF COMBINATION THERAPY OF INTERFERON-ALPHA 2B PLUS RIBAVIRIN FOR CHRONIC HEPATITIS C. Med J Islam Repub Iran 2006; 19 (4) :291-295
URL:
http://mjiri.iums.ac.ir/article-1-543-en.html
Imam Khomeini Hospital, Endoscopy Ward, Tehran, Iran , mirmomen@ams.ac.ir
Abstract: (4882 Views)
Introduction: The aim of this study is to assess the therapeutic efficacy and safety
of a particular brand of IFN alpha (PDferon B®) in combination with ribavirin (RlBA)
on Iranian patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC). The addition of RIBA to the standard
treatment with interferon (IFN) alpha led to an improvement in sustained virologic
response (SVR) from less than 20% with IFN monotherapy to 40-45% in combination
therapy.
Methods: 69 naive patients aged 18 years or older with CHC were enrolled and
treated with 3 mega units (MU) IFN alpha-2b three times a week plus 800-1200 mg
RIBA per day for 48 weeks and the patients were followed for 6 months. The efficacy
was evident at the end of treatment and at the end of follow-up in terms of sustained
normalization of alanine aminotransferase and sustained serum H CV-RNA loss.
Results: The rates of sustained biochemical and virologic response were 63%
and 61%, respectively. Virologic response was 83.1% and 86.4% at weeks 12 and 48
as well. No patients had serious complications.
Conclusion: Although we had no control group using standard IFN alone, our
preliminary findings showed an acceptable and promising response rate to PDferon.
On the other hand, it seems that adverse events with PDferon are as other standard
IFNs.