Research Article

The Evaluation of Pegylated Interferon Therapy in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis Delta

10.4274/Vhd.32032

  • Ayşe ALBAYRAK
  • Muharrem COŞKUN
  • Ahmet UYANIKOĞLU
  • Yasin BAYIR
  • Havva YILMAZ
  • Yunus İlyas KİBAR
  • Ahmet TAY
  • Fatih ALBAYRAK

Viral Hepat J 2012;18(2):68-70

Objective:

Hepatite Delta virus (HDV) infection affects approximately 15 million persons worldwide. HDV infections in our country, like the hepatite B virus infections, form a serious problem, especially in the Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia regions.

Materials and Methods:

27 patients who had not been previously treated with interferon, pegile interferon or nucleos(t)ide for chronic hepatitis B and chronic HDV 27 patients with chronic HDV infections who have been treated with pegile interferon, being followed by the Gastroenterology and Infectious Diseases Clinics of the our hospital.

Results:

The mean age of the patients were 52.5±12.6 years. Of the patients in the study, 55.6% were males and 44.4% were females. The ALT average of the patients was established as 73.5±38.9, and the AST average was 68.6±45.9. Liver biopsies were performed on 12 of the patients. The fibrosis average was found to be 1.91±1.22, and the histological activity index was 8.92±1.83. Pre-treatment HDV-RNA levels were 274436±335566 copies/ml. 2 patients could not complete the treatment due to the side effects of the pegile interferon treatment. In the 12th month of the treatment, HDV-RNA became negative in 10 (37.0%) of the patients. The HBV-DNA average of the patients was 4.21x106±2.04 x107 copies/ml.

Conclusion:

It has been determined that among patients with naive chronic HDV, those that have high pre-treatment levels of HBV-DNA, the HBV-DNA is suppressed to a great extent with only pegile interferon treatment. Therefore, we are of the opinion that the addition of oral nucleos(t)ide to the pegile interferon treatment may be unnecessary at the start of treatment for this group of patients. It may be appropriate to add nucleos(t)ide treatment to the ongoing treatment, it may be deemed necessary in the follow-up.

Keywords: Hepatite Delta virus, hepatite B virus, pegile interferon, oral nucleos(t)ide

Full Text (Turkish)