Pretreatment hepatitis C virus dynamics for predicting virological response to interferon-α2b monotherapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection

Abstract One hundred and forty-one patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection treated with 6 MIU of interferon (IFN)-α2b for 24 weeks were studied to compare pretreatment viral dynamics during 1 month before the initiation of treatment (ΔHCV) with other predictive factors. The patients were classified into three groups according to ΔHCV: the Increase group (ΔHCV >0.20 log copies/ml/month), the Stable group (−0.20≤ΔHCV≤0.20 log copies/ml/month) and the Decrease group (ΔHCV P P =0.0132) and at 5.00–5.49 log copies/ml (0% vs. 81.8%, P =0.0270), respectively. The pretreatment HCV RNA decrease was determined as independent predictors of SR by multivariable logistic regression analysis ( P P =0.0417). These results suggest that ΔHCV is independently associated with the IFN response and is useful for determining the indication of IFN treatment.