Open AccessLiver enzyme normalization predicts success of Hepatitis C oral direct-acting antiviral treatment
Author(s) -
Saad Khan,
Michaeline McGuinty,
Daniel J. Corsi,
Curtis Cooper
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
clinical and investigative medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.391
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1488-2353
pISSN - 0147-958X
DOI - 10.25011/cim.v40i2.28198
Subject(s) - medicine , hepatitis c virus , liver enzyme , antiviral therapy , hepatitis c , gastroenterology , interferon , antiviral treatment , viral load , viral hepatitis , chronic hepatitis , virus , immunology
Purpose: Monitoring of hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment response is performed by serial HCV RNA measurements; however, this may not be useful for predicting treatment success or failure with oral direct-acting antiviral agent (DAA) therapies. Liver enzyme levels, which are elevated in chronic HCV and tend to decline on therapy, may serve as a more logistically and economically feasible alternative for monitoring treatment response.Source: The Ottawa Hospital Viral Hepatitis Clinic patients (n=219), receiving interferon-free oral DAA treatments, were assessed for liver enzymes and HCV RNA levels at baseline, week 4 and ≥12 weeks post-treatment. Suppression cut points used for this analysis were ALT ≤ 40U L-1 and AST ≤ 30U L-1. The primary outcome was week 12 sustained virologic response (SVR). By our analysis, all indicators had strong PPV (>90%) but limited NPV (