The numbers of patients who were followed-up with HCV RNA assays and liver function tests for more than 6 months after SVR were 224. Sixty five patients were lost to follow-up. The remaining three selleck chemicals llc patients were less than 6 months of follow-up period, so they didn’t perform HCV RNA assays. These 224 patients were actually followed-up for a median period of 18 months (range 6-60 months). The baseline characteristics and treatment doses of the patients were shown in Table 1. During the follow-up period, ALT increased in 149 (66.5%) and was maintained within normal limits in 75 (33.5%). Pre-treatment abdominal ultrasonography was performed in 220 patients, 22/220 (10%) had liver cirrhosis and 196/220 (89.1%) did not. Two patients already had HCC. SVR was maintained in all patients (n=224, 100%) during the follow-up period (Fig.

1). If SVR was achieved, there was no relationship between reappearance and the dose of either PEG-IFN or ribavirin. There were two patients who achieved the SVR but developed HCC during the follow-up period. Among them, one had liver cirrhosis before the treatment, the other patients with HCC was a 54-year-old heavy alcoholic. He did not have liver cirrhosis radiologically, but his aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI) was 1.0 (Table 2). Figure 1 Flow chart of patients. Table 1 Baseline characteristics of the enrolled patients Table 2 Characteristics of patients who developed HCC after achieving an SVR Figure 2 shows the numbers of patients who were followed up after SVR and the durability.

SVR was maintained in all patients during the follow-up period, therefore there was no control group who had a reappearance. Figure 2 Durability of the SVR in the CHC patients treated with PEG-IFN plus ribavirin. The numbers in parentheses represent the numbers of patients who were followed up, which was 224 for a median duration of 18 months (range 6-60 months). The SVR was maintained … DISCUSSION The standard therapy for HCV infection is the combination of PEG-IFN and ribavirin. According to previous studies, SVR was maintained up to 99-100%, and the achievement of the SVR was considered as cure.9,16-20 However, according to a recent Korean study, 73 out of 156 patients treated successfully with interferon/peginterferon and ribavirin achieved the SVR. During the follow-up period of those 73 patients with SVR, the HCV RNA reappeared in 8 patients (11%).

In this Korean study, patients were enrolled from January 2002 to October 2008, and the serum HCV RNA was measured quantitatively by real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) (ABI prism system, Applied Biosystems, USA).21 However, the RT-PCR assay using the ABI prism system was used Dacomitinib only in the past 5 years, hence in patients who were treated earlier, the HCV may be quantitatively measured by the HCV RNA assay with lower sensitivity and higher limit of detection than RT-PCR assay using ABI prism system.