Pegylated interferon α and ribavirin in treatment of chronic hepatitis C in children is used rarely. The aim of the study was to find prognostic factors for sustained virological response and to analyze the safety of pegylated interferon α2a and ribavirin in children with chronic hepatitis C. The study covered a group of 44 children, mean age 14 years, with diagnosed chronic hepatitis C. Clinic...

We report the case of a 50-year-old male patient with a rare profile: bronchial casts associated with the use of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. The patient sought treatment in a pulmonology clinic with a history of progressive dyspnea for four months that had evolved to progressive cough followed by frequent and abundant elimination of bronchial casts. The patient was initially treated wit...

Objectives: To assess whether a combination of pegylated interferon (interferon conjugated with polyethylene glycol) and ribavirin can improve the response rate in patients with chronic hepatitis C who either did not respond to (Non-responders), or had relapsed after responding to (Relapsers) standard interferon and ribavirin combination therapy. Patients and methods: In this prospective study,...

Approximately 170 million people are infected with hepatitis C, and the sustained virological response rate to treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin is 30-50%. In an attempt to improve the chances of cure, boceprevir is being added to therapy, but it is associated with an increased incidence of adverse events. We herein report a case of acute pancreatitis developed during treatment ...

BACKGROUND Clinicians are incorporating patient-reported outcomes in the management of HIV-infected persons co-infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV), but there are no validated inventories to monitor symptoms of patients during HCV therapy. DESIGN Five-year retrospective cohort analysis of persons living with HIV (PLWH) treated for HCV. METHODS The HCV symptom-inventory (HCV-SI) was adminis...

BACKGROUND Lamivudine resistance develops in up to 80% of patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) after 5 years of treatment. Cross-resistance between nucleoside/nucleotide analogues limits management options in these patients. To investigate the role of pegylated interferon-α2a as rescue therapy in these patients, the efficacy and safety of pegylated interferon-α2a between treatment-naive pati...

BACKGROUND Hepatitis C virus infection is a global health problem. New direct-acting antiviral agents have been recently approved. However, due to their high cost and some genotypes remaining difficult to treat, interferon-based therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin likely may remain a component of hepatitis C virus treatment for some patients. Unfortunately, pegylated interferon / ri...

BACKGROUND Early treatment of acute HCV infection has been shown to improve virological response rates in HIV-positive patients; however, details on when and how to best treat acute HCV infection remain unclear at present. METHODS In this European multicentre cohort study, HIV-positive patients with acute HCV infection were offered immediate or delayed anti-HCV therapy, pegylated interferon o...

The hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype is an important predictive outcome parameter for pegylated interferon plus ribavirin therapy. Most published therapeutic trials to date have enrolled mainly patients with HCV genotypes 1, 2 and 3. Limited studies have focused on genotype 4 patients, who have had a poor representation in pivotal trials. Our aim was to evaluate the efficacy and safety of trea...

Objective: To determine the response to pegylated interferon-α treatment of HBeAgpositive hepatitis B patients with proven lamivudine resistance. Methods: Sixteen HBeAg-positive HBV patients with YMDD mutations were treated with pegylated interferon. Median treatment duration was 52 weeks (range 20–53), with a 26-week follow up. Results: Two of 16 (12.5%) patients seroconverted to HBeAg negativ...