Abstract
This is a retrospective longitudinal follow-up study of 25 HIV/HCV positive cirrhotic patients not responding to peg-IFN plus ribavirin, and 25 untreated controls matched for age (+/-5 years), gender and Child-Pugh score. The primary endpoint of the study was the incidence of cirrhosis progression (CP) defined as the occurrence of at least one of the following events: death, ascites, jaundice, encephalopathy, gastrointestinal bleeding and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). During the median follow-up of 54 months (34-89), four treated (16%) and 13 untreated patients (52%) experienced CP (p = 0.02). Poisson's regression model showed that the independent predictors of CP were Peg-IFN therapy (p = 0.016), positive HIV-RNA (p = 0.024), and altered ALP values (p = 0.012). Peg-IFN therapy seems to slow down the rate of cirrhosis progression also in HIV/HCV co-infected patients nonresponders to anti-HCV therapy, in comparison with untreated patients.
MeSH terms
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Antiviral Agents / adverse effects*
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Antiviral Agents / therapeutic use
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Biomarkers
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Child
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Disease Progression
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Drug Therapy, Combination
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Female
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Follow-Up Studies
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HIV / genetics
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HIV / isolation & purification
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HIV Infections / complications
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HIV Infections / drug therapy*
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Hepacivirus / isolation & purification
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Hepatitis C / complications
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Hepatitis C / drug therapy*
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Humans
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Incidence
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Interferon alpha-2
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Interferon-alpha / adverse effects*
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Interferon-alpha / therapeutic use
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Italy / epidemiology
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Liver Cirrhosis / epidemiology*
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Liver Cirrhosis / etiology
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Liver Cirrhosis / pathology
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Male
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Poisson Distribution
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Polyethylene Glycols / adverse effects*
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Polyethylene Glycols / therapeutic use
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RNA, Viral / analysis
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Recombinant Proteins
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Retrospective Studies
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Ribavirin / therapeutic use*
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Treatment Failure
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Treatment Outcome
Substances
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Antiviral Agents
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Biomarkers
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Interferon alpha-2
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Interferon-alpha
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RNA, Viral
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Recombinant Proteins
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Polyethylene Glycols
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Ribavirin
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peginterferon alfa-2b
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peginterferon alfa-2a