Clinical Study
Efficacy and Safety of Low-Dose Peginterferon Alpha-2a Plus Ribavirin on Chronic Hepatitis C
Table 4
Adverse clinical and laboratory reported during treatment and followup.
| Adverse Events | 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 |
| Laboratory abnormalities | | | | | | Hemoglobin < 80 g/L | 47 (19.3) | 18 (20.7) | 12 (19.1) | 17 (18.3) | 0.918 | Neutrophils < 0.75 × 109/L | 6 (2.5) | 3 (3.4) | 2 (2.3) | 1 (1.1) | 0.541 | Platelets < 50 × 109/L | 9 (3.7) | 4 (4.6) | 3 (4.7) | 2 (2.2) | 0.600 | Thyroid dysfunction | 15 (6.2) | 9 (10.2) | 5 (7.9) | 1 (1.1) | 0.028 | No adverse events, n (%) | 41 (16.9) | 10 (11.5) | 8 (12.7) | 23 (24.7) | 0.036 | Common adverse events (>10%) | | | | | | Fatigue | 154 (63.4) | 65 (74.7) | 38 (60.3) | 51 (54.8) | 0.018 | Fever | 134 (55.1) | 55 (63.2) | 34 (54.0) | 45 (48.4) | 0.132 | Headache | 67 (27.6) | 31 (35.6) | 16 (25.4) | 20 (21.5) | 0.096 | Dermatitis or Pruritus | 46 (18.9) | 20 (22.9) | 11 (17.5) | 15 (16.1) | 0.473
| Nausea | 34 (13.9) | 15 (17.2) | 9 (14.3) | 10 (10.8) | 0.454 | Arthralgia or Myalgia | 30 (12.3) | 12 (13.8) | 9 (14.3) | 9 (9.7) | 0.607 | Irritability or Depression | 27 (11.1) | 11 (12.6) | 8 (12.7) | 8 (8.6) | 0.619 | Insomnia | 25 (10.3) | 10 (11.5) | 8 (12.7) | 7 (7.5) | 0.522 |
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Notes. All values are expressed as n (%). P value was given by 2 × 3 chi-square test comparing the three different peg-IFN α-2a dose groups.
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