Decrease of Hepatitis C Burden in Patients With Transfusion Dependent Beta Thalassemia Major, Thalassemia Research Center, 1995 – 2014

Kosaryan, Mehrnoush; Aliasgharian, Aily

doi:10.17795/jpr-679

Volume 3, Issue 2 (7-2015) J. Pediatr. Rev 2015, 3(2): 35-37 | Back to browse issues page

‎ 10.17795/jpr-679

Mendeley

Zotero

RefWorks

Kosaryan M, Aliasgharian A. Decrease of Hepatitis C Burden in Patients With Transfusion Dependent Beta Thalassemia Major, Thalassemia Research Center, 1995 – 2014. J. Pediatr. Rev 2015; 3 (2) :35-37
URL: http://jpr.mazums.ac.ir/article-1-107-en.html

Decrease of Hepatitis C Burden in Patients With Transfusion Dependent Beta Thalassemia Major, Thalassemia Research Center, 1995 – 2014

Mehrnoush Kosaryan¹

, Aily Aliasgharian ^*²

1- Thalassemia Research Center, Hemoglobinopathy Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, IR Iran
2- Thalassemia Research Center, Hemoglobinopathy Institute, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, IR Iran , bahare92@gmail.com

Abstract: (4409 Views)

Results: Screening for HCV started in 1995 at the TRC. Seventy-seven (15%) patients were antibody-positive in 1995. Tests for virus detection were not available at the time. Patients have been examined using serum AST, ALT, bilirubin, PT, PTT, and liver biopsy, and 45 were treated using alpha interferon alone. A second liver biopsy was performed at the end of treatment for 21 patients, and a blinded pathologist compared the histology according to the Knodell score. According to normalization of liver enzymes, the treatment was successful (McNemar test, P < 0.02). Based on the Knodell score, 54%, 31%, and 11% had complete, partial, and no response, respectively. A quantitative test for viremia became available thereafter. Thirteen patients who were resistant to alpha interferon have been treated using “Pegasys”™ ± ribavirin. Ten patients responded; however, three have been resistant and are still viremic. Twenty-seven patients received no treatment. Twenty-two (81.4%) had negative PCR tests. Five viremic patients refused treatment. A second screening test for HCV antibody was introduced in 2001, and, since then, annual screening for HCV antibody has been performed for all patients. No new case has been found since 2001. During the follow-up period, two deaths have been recorded in the cohort; none was a direct consequence of liver disease. Both patients had negative PCR tests for viremia. In 2014, there were 72 patients (52% men) with positive antibody tests, with a mean age of 30.5 ± 5.7 years. They mean age at the first blood transfusion was 2.8 ± 2.5 years. At the time of publishing, 15 patients (3.8%; 95% confidence interval 2 - 5.6) had viremia. Five patients had documented liver cirrhosis.

Keywords: Hepatitis C Virus, Treatment, Iran

Full-Text [PDF 58 kb] (1942 Downloads)

Type of Study: Original Article |
Received: 2015/02/14 | Accepted: 2015/07/5 | Published: 2015/07/20

Send email to the article author

Rights and permissions
	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Designed & Developed by : Yektaweb