Rate of cirrhosis progression reduced in HIV/HCV co-infected non-responders to anti-HCV therapy

New Microbiol. 2007 Jul;30(3):259-64.

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.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Antiviral Agents / adverse effects*
  • Antiviral Agents / therapeutic use
  • Biomarkers
  • Child
  • Disease Progression
  • Drug Therapy, Combination
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • HIV / genetics
  • HIV / isolation & purification
  • HIV Infections / complications
  • HIV Infections / drug therapy*
  • Hepacivirus / isolation & purification
  • Hepatitis C / complications
  • Hepatitis C / drug therapy*
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Interferon alpha-2
  • Interferon-alpha / adverse effects*
  • Interferon-alpha / therapeutic use
  • Italy / epidemiology
  • Liver Cirrhosis / epidemiology*
  • Liver Cirrhosis / etiology
  • Liver Cirrhosis / pathology
  • Male
  • Poisson Distribution
  • Polyethylene Glycols / adverse effects*
  • Polyethylene Glycols / therapeutic use
  • RNA, Viral / analysis
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Ribavirin / therapeutic use*
  • Treatment Failure
  • Treatment Outcome

Substances

  • Antiviral Agents
  • Biomarkers
  • Interferon alpha-2
  • Interferon-alpha
  • RNA, Viral
  • Recombinant Proteins
  • Polyethylene Glycols
  • Ribavirin
  • peginterferon alfa-2b
  • peginterferon alfa-2a