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  • Pegylated interferon α-2a plus low-dose ribavirin for the retreatment of dialysis chronic hepatitis C patients who relapsed from prior interferon monotherapy

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Pegylated interferon α-2a plus low-dose ribavirin for the retreatment of dialysis chronic hepatitis C patients who relapsed from prior interferon monotherapy
  1. C-H Liu1,
  2. C-C Liang2,
  3. C-J Liu1,
  4. H-B Tsai3,
  5. P-H Hung4,
  6. S-J Hsu5,
  7. S-I Chen5,
  8. J-W Lin5,
  9. M-Y Lai1,6,7,
  10. J-H Chen8,
  11. P-J Chen1,6,7,
  12. D-S Chen1,7,
  13. J-H Kao1,6,7
  1. 1
    Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  2. 2
    Department of Internal Medicine, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  3. 3
    Department of Internal Medicine, Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, Chia-Yi, Taiwan
  4. 4
    Department of Internal Medicine, Chiayi Christian Hospital, Chia-Yi, Taiwan
  5. 5
    Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Yun-Lin Branch, Taiwan
  6. 6
    Department of Medical Research, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  7. 7
    Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  8. 8
    Department of Pathology, National Taiwan University Hospital, Yun-Lin Branch, Taiwan
  1. Professor J-H Kao, Hepatitis Research Center, National Taiwan University Hospital, 7 Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei, 10002, Taiwan; kaojh{at}ntu.edu.tw

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/gut.2008.165076

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    Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) remains frequent in dialysis patients.1 Currently, interferon (IFN) monotherapy is the standard of care for dialysis CHC patients.2 In a previous paper published in the journal, we demonstrated that treatment with weekly pegylated IFNα-2a had a significantly higher sustained virological response (SVR) rate than that with thrice weekly standard IFNα-2a in such patients (48% vs 20%, p = 0.02).3 Although dialysis CHC patients responded better to IFN monotherapy than those with normal renal function, the overall SVR rates are far from satisfactory.4 5

    Retreatment with pegylated IFN plus ribavirin in ordinary CHC patients who relapsed from prior standard IFN had an SVR rate of 52%.6 Among these patients, the SVR rates for genotype 1 and 2/3 patients were 47% and 63%, respectively. Although ribavirin is contraindicated in dialysis CHC patients for the risk of …

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    Footnotes

    • Funding: The study was supported by grants from the National Taiwan University Hospital; the National Science Council, and Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan.

    • Competing interests: Pei-Jer Chen is a consultant for Norvartis and Roche. Ding-Shinn Chen is a consultant for Norvartis and GlaxoSmithKline. Jia-Horng Kao has received recent research funding for Vitagenomics; is a consultant for Bristol–Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Norvartis, Omrix, Roche, and Schering-Plough; and on the speaker’s bureau for Roche, Bristol–Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Norvartis and Schering–Plough. All other authors have no competing interests.

    • Ethics approval: This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee, National Taiwan University Hospital, on 13 April 2006