Efficacy and Safety of Low-Dose Peginterferon Alpha-2a Plus Ribavirin on Chronic Hepatitis C
Table 2
Virological response during treatment and at the end of followup.
Virological Response
Overall ()
Group I: peg-IFN α-2a 180 μg/week plus ribavirin ()
Group II: peg-IFN α-2a 135 μg/week plus ribavirin ()
Group III: peg-IFN α-2a 90 μg/week plus ribavirin ()
P value
EVR, no./total (%)*
149/172 (86.7)
54/59 (91.5)
45/51 (88.2)
50/62 (82.3)
0.197
Complete
130/172 (75.6)
49/59 (83.1)
41/51 (80.4)
40/62 (64.5)
0.038
Partial
19/172 (11.0)
5/59 (8.5)
4/51 (7.8)
10/62 (16.1)
0.278
ETR, no./total (%)
202/243 (83.1)
73/87 (83.9)
53/63 (84.1)
76/93 (81.7)
0.899
SVR, no./total (%)
165/243 (67.9)
60/87 (68.9)
43/63 (68.3)
62/93 (66.7)
0.945
1b
73/130 (56.2)
29/50 (58.0)
18/32 (56.3)
26/48 (54.2)
0.877
2/3
66/80 (82.5)
21/25 (84.0)
17/21 (81.0)
28/34 (82.4)
0.964
6a
26/33 (78.8)
10/12 (83.3)
8/10 (80%)
8/11 (72.7)
0.819
SVR by diagnosis, no./total (%)
Chronic hepatitis
130/177 (73.4)
50/66 (75.8)
33/45 (73.3)
47/66 (71.2)
0.839
Cirrhosis
35/66 (53.0)
10/21 (47.6)
10/18 (55.6)
15/27 (58.1)
0.834
SVR by baseline HCV RNA, no. /total (%)
<600,000 IU/mL
87/118 (73.7)
29/40 (72.5)
20/28 (71.4)
38/50 (76.0)
0.887
≥600,000 IU/mL
78/125 (62.4)
31/47 (66.0)
23/35 (65.7)
24/43 (55.8)
0.545
Notes. *Among the 243 patients who completed the proposed duration of antiviral therapy with peg-IFN α-2a plus ribavirin and had at least 24 weeks followup period after the end of treatment, only 172 patients were tested HCV RNA level at week 12 of treatment, among these 172 patients, 149 patients achieved RVR. P value was given by 2 × 3 chi-square test comparing the three different peg-IFN α-2a dose groups. EVR: early virological response. ETR: end-of-treatment response. SVR: sustained virologic response.
