Positive and Negative Predictive Factors for Treatment Response in Patients with Chronic Viral C Hepatitis

ABSTRACT: More than 200 million people worldwide are infected with hepatitis C virus. In the United States, suggested estimates are that more than 5 million people live with HCV. The purpose of this paper is to identify, within the Southwestern Romanian population, host factors associated with the response to Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin treatment for Hepatitis C virus infection. We investigated several factors and their correlation to sustained virological response. The study included 267 patients diagnosed with chronic Hepatitis C between 2013 and 2016, treated with Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin in the 2nd Medical Department of the Emergency County Hospital Craiova. From the 267 patients included in this study, 149 (55,81%) achieved sustained virological response during the 48 weeks of treatment. Several factors were taken in consideration regarding the treatment response. Positive predictive factors for achieving sustained virological response were: the female gender (35,96%), Low Viral Load at the beginning of treatment, Early Virological Response 75 (28,09%), Rapid Virologic Response133 (49,81%), and stage of fibrosis, with Stage F1 having the highest rate of Sustained Virological Response during double therapy 81 (30,34%). Although at the present time a number of more effective antiviral products have been approved for the treatment of viral hepatitis C, in our country the standard of treatment remains with PegInterferon and Ribavirin therapy. Multiple clinical and paraclinical tools can identify patients with a high chance of responding to treatment, or those who, during treatment, do not meet the criteria for prolonging therapy.