Interferon Treatment of Hepatitis C Reinfection after Liver Transplantation: A Meta-Analysis

Table 1

Characteristics of the clinical trials in this study.

Study	Area	Type	Sample size	Age	Gender; (M/F)	Serum; creatinine; (mg/dL)	HCV-RNA before treatment	Mean ALT at; inclusion; (IU/L)	Treatment regimen
									Drugs	Course, weeks	Follow-up, weeks
Berenguer,; 2008 [12]	Spain	Cohort	TG: 86	54 (31–67)	61/25	NR	NR	NR	pegIFN-ribavirin	48	72
			CG: 75	59 (28–67)	52/23	NR	NR	NR	No antiviral therapy
Castells et al.,; 2005 [13]	Spain	Cohort	TG: 24	61.4 ± 8.1	17/7	1.13 ± 0.15	6.1 10^7 (8.1 10^4–1.6 10^8) IU/mL	287 ± 222	pegIFN-ribavirin	48	72
			CG: 24	59.7 ± 6.9	16/8	1.25 ± 0.3	6.5 10^7 (2.3 10^5–2.6 10^8) IU/mL	296 ± 218	No antiviral therapy
Chalasani et al.,; 2005 [14]	America	RCT	TG: 33	53 ± 1.4	25/8	1.4 ± 0.1	(3.4 ± 2.7) 10^6 IU/mL	90 ± 15.5	pegIFN	48	72
			CG: 32	51 ± 1.2	26/6	1.3 ± 0.1	(3.0 ± 2) 10^6 IU/mL	79 ± 10.9	No antiviral therapy
Samuel et al.,; 2003 [11]	France	RCT	TG: 28	56 ± 8	18/10	NR	(14.3 ± 6.1) 10^6 copies/mL	76 ± 52	pegIFN-ribavirin	48	72
			CG: 24	58 ± 6	18/6	NR	(9.4 ± 15.1) 10^6 copies/mL	68 ± 36	No antiviral therapy

TG: treatment group; CG: control group; NR: not reported; RCT: randomized controlled trial.