BACKGROUND Several questions arise concerning the use of the anti-CD25 antibody daclizumab to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). OBJECTIVES To answer the following 3 questions related to the efficacy of daclizumab therapy in patients with MS: Is the therapeutic effect of daclizumab dependent on combination with interferon beta? Is a higher dosage of daclizumab more efficacious in patients with pe...

We describe a patient with HbE-beta thalassaemia and chronic hepatitis C virus infection (genotype 1a) who was treated successfully with peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin, following failure to respond to standard interferon and ribavirin therapy. She had sustained virological response for nearly 24 months after completing peginterferon alfa-2b and ribavirin therapy. Transfusion requirements w...

Host genetic polymorphisms in interferon pathway genes are reported to be associated with response to interferon therapy. Five hundred and forty-eight α interferon treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients were enrolled in the retrospective nested case-control study. All patients received α interferon based treatment and were examined for therapy efficacy. We genotyped 115 polymorphisms from...

BACKGROUND Isolated cases of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) with interferon α or β therapy have been reported, but no population-based estimates of the incidence of the disease after interferon exposure are available. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence of PAH after initiation of interferon therapy, using a large commercial insurance database. METHODS Using National Dr...

BACKGROUND Interferon beta is used to modify the course of relapsing multiple sclerosis. Despite interferon beta therapy, many patients have relapses. Natalizumab, an alpha4 integrin antagonist, appeared to be safe and effective alone and when added to interferon beta-1a in preliminary studies. METHODS We randomly assigned 1171 patients who, despite interferon beta-1a therapy, had had at leas...

1. Newman LS, Rose CS, Maier LA. Sarcoidosis. N Engl J Med 1997; 336:1224-34. 2. Pietropaoli A, Modrak J, Utell M. Interferon-α therapy associated with the development of sarcoidosis. Chest 1999; 116:569-72. 3. Kikawada M, Ichinose Y, Kunisawa A, et al. Sarcoidosis induced by interferon therapy for chronic myelogenous leukaemia. Respirology 1998; 3:41-4. 4. Hoffman RM, Jung MC, Motz R, et al. S...

There are seven approved treatments for adults with chronic hepatitis B virus infection in the United States and European countries: interferon-α, pegylated interferon-α, lamivudine, adefovir dipivoxil, entecavir, telbivudine, and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate. At present, two new analogues, entecavir and tenofovir are recommended as the first line therapy by the guidelines of European Associat...

Patients with hepatitis C virus-related decompensated cirrhosis can benefit from interferon-based antiviral therapy, but the common complication of cytopenia is a contraindication for this treatment. Splenectomy prior to interferon therapy may alleviate this problem. To investigate whether splenectomy improves the efficacy of antiviral therapy, 13 interferon-naïve hepatitis C virus decompensate...