The Effectiveness of Combination Therapy with Peginterferon α-2a and Ribavirin in Chronic Hepatitis C

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of peginterferon alfa-2a plus ribavirin therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C in Gwangju-Jeonnam area. Eighty-four patients with detectable HCV RNA were eligible for the study. Genotype-non-1 patients were treated with peginterferon alfa-2a 180 mcg/week plus ribavirin 800 mg/day for 24 weeks and genotype-1 patients were treated with peginterferon alfa-2a 180 mcg/week plus ribavirin 1,000∼1,200 mg/day for 48 weeks. The end of treatment virologic response (ETVR), the sustained virologic response (SVR), the end of treatment of biochemical response (ETBR), the sustained biochemical response (SBR) and the adverse events were analyzed. The overall ETVR was 95.8%; 64.1% in genotype-1 group and 96.4% in genotype-non-1 group (p=0.56). The overall SVR was 80.4%; 60.0% in genotype-1 group and 86.1% in non-1 group (p=0.087). The ETBR was 72.2% and the SBR was 95.7%. In genotype-non-1, body mass index had independent effect on the SVR (p=0.038). Eight patients (32.0%) in the genotype-1 group and 4 patients (6.8%) in the non-1 group dropped out at the end of treatment, and 7 (8.3%) of 84 patients discontinued due to adverse events. This study shows that combination therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin as an initial treatment for chronic hepatitis C patients in this area is safe and effective as compared with Western and other reports; and that the body mass index may be regarded as one of the significant factors influencing the SVR.