End treatment response with pegylated interferon among chronic hepatitis C non-responders.

OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of end treatment virologic response (ETR) with pegylated interferon alpha and ribavirin in treatment of chronic hepatitis C patients who failed to respond to interferon plus ribavirin therapy given for at least 24 weeks. STUDY DESIGN Descriptive study. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Medical Unit-II, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Shafi Clinic Rawalpindi and PAEC Hospital Islamabad, Pakistan, from July 2008 to June 2009. METHODOLOGY Patients with hepatitis C who were non-responders to previous treatment with standard interferon and ribavirin, were given Pegylated Interferon alpha plus ribavirin. Total duration of treatment was 24 weeks for genotypes 2 and 3 and 48 weeks for genotypes 1 and 4. The primary end point was undetectable HCV RNA by polymerase chain reaction assay at the completion of therapy. RESULTS Out of the 44 enrolled patients, 24 (54.5%) were males and 20 (45.5%) were females. Mean age of patients was 45.25±7.14 years. HCV genotypes were 3 in 64%, 2 in 30% and 7% each had genotypes 1 and 4. Both the early virological response and end of treatment response was seen in 75% patients. CONCLUSION There was a high ETR rate of 75 in previous non-responders to conventional combination therapy. This high ETR as compared to international data is because of existence of favourable genotypes in our country which is encouraging in the treatment of non-responders.