Hepatitis Monthly
Maissa El Raziky1, 
Waleed Fouad Fathalah1,*, Wafaa Ahmed El-akel1, Ahmed Salama1, Gamal Esmat1, Mahassen Mabrouk1, Rabab Mamoun Salama1, Hany Mahmoud Khatab2Egypt has one of the highest (16-8%) prevalence rates of HCV infection in the world. Approximately 90% of Egyptian HCV isolates belong to a single subtype (4a), which responds less successfully to interferon therapy than other subtypes. Studies comparing the efficacy and safety of PEGIFN alfa-2a and PEGIFN alfa-2b in treatment-naive HCV-infected patients have shown conflicting results.
assessing the effects of Peginterferon alpha-2a versus Peginterferon alpha-2b on the sustained virological response in naive chronic HCV genotype-4 Egyptian patients.
this retrospective study cohort consists of 3718 chronic HCV patients admitted to a large, Egyptian medical center. 1985 patients had been treated with PEG-IFN alfa-2a plus RBV and 1733 patients with PEG-IFN alfa-2b plus RBV between years 2007-2011. Efficacy outcomes were sustained virologic response (SVR) and treatment discontinuation rates due to serious adverse effects.
The ETR & SVR in patients treated with PEGIFN alfa-2a was 64.1% and 59.6% as compared to treatment with PEGIFN alfa-2b where these parameters were 58.2% and 53.9% respectively (P < 0.05). Treatment discontinuation rates, were similar in the two types of PEGIFN [0.66 (0.37-1.16); P = 0.15]. Significant dose reduction was evident with peginterferon alfa-2b (35.3%) than peginterferon alpha-2a (27.3 %) (P < 0.01). Patients with lower base line AFP and ALT were most likely to achieve SVR using INF alpha 2-a.
Peginterferon alpha-2a has a higher efficacy regarding ETR and SVR as compared to Peginterferon alfa-2b in treatment of naive chronic HCV genotype-4 patients.
Full text is available in PDF
© 2013, Author(s). This open-access article is available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which allows for unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
Leave a comment here
Purchasing Reprints
Author(s):
