Effect of Antiviral Therapy on Hepatitis C Virus Related Glomerulopathy

oleh: Abbas Ghulam, Hussain Shahid, Shafi Tahir

Format: Article
Diterbitkan: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2008-01-01

Deskripsi

To determine the efficacy of antiviral therapy in hepatitis C virus associated glome-rulopathy, we studied 30 patients with HCV-associated glomerulopathy at Sheikh Zayed Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan from June 2004 to February 2007. Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) was the commonest kidney lesion, being reported in 25/30 (83&#x0025;), followed by membra-nous glomerulonephritis (MGN) in 3/30 (10&#x0025;) and mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis (MesGN) in 2/30 (7&#x0025;). Cryoglobulinaemia was positive in 8/20 (40&#x0025;) cases. Most common HCV genotype was 3a. All the patients received interferon alpha combined with ribavirin therapy for 6-12 months based on viral genotypes and doses were adjusted according to renal function. Anti-viral response was achieved in the form of aviremia at completion of 6 months treatment in 8/30 (26.6&#x0025;), decreased transaminases levels from a mean of 96.4 &#x00B1; 72.2 to 60.1 &#x00B1; 44.3 IU/L, p= 0.005, 24-hour proteinuria decreased significantly from a mean of 4.8 g to 1.20 g, p= 0.001, and complement C3 and C4 concentrations returned to normal in those subjects who responded to treatment. The rate of relapse was <i> 50&#x0025;. </i> We conclude that though the overall antiviral response of HCV was not high, there was a significant reduction in proteinuria suggesting indirectly an improvement in renal patho-logy. Further studies with large number of patients with follow-up renal biopsies are warranted.