Treatment of chronic hepatitis C genotype 4 with alpha-interferon in Saudi Arabia: a multicenter study.

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIM: Several studies have indicated that there are certain predictive factors (gender, duration of infection with HCV, cirrhosis and genotype of HCV) of a better response with alpha-interferon treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C. The aim of this study was to evaluate these factors in Saudis and other Arab nationals with chronic hepatitis C-genotype 4-undergoing alpha-interferon treatment. METHODOLOGY: A multicenter study was conducted between 1992 and 1994 on 80 consecutive patients who were prospectively recruited and randomized in treatment and control groups. RESULTS: The results of this multicenter study indicated a low response rate to alpha-interferon with an overall response rate of 43%, of which 28% was complete. The sustained response was only 16%. Among the reasons for this low response in our study are the high percentage of patients with cirrhosis and the long infection interval, as about 80% of our HCV cases were community-acquired. CONCLUSION: Liver cirrhosis was found to be the main predetermining factor for response to interferon treatment. Genotype 4 was not a contributing factor to the difference in response rate.