%0 Journal Article
%T Effectiveness of treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin in an unselected population of patients with chronic hepatitis C: A Danish nationwide cohort study
%A Nanna Hansen
%A Niels Obel
%A Peer B Christensen
%A Mette Kj£¿r
%A Alex L Laursen
%A Henrik B Krarup
%A Axel M£¿ller
%A Poul Schlichting
%A Jens Bukh
%A Nina Weis
%A the Danish Database for Hepatitis B and C (DANHEP)- group
%J BMC Infectious Diseases
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2334-11-177
%X We determined the proportion of SVR in a nationwide, population-based cohort of 432 patients with chronic HCV infection who were starting treatment, and analyzed the impact of known covariates on SVR by using a logistic regression analysis.The majority of treated patients had genotype 1 (133 patients) and genotype 2/3 (285 patients) infections, with 44% and 72%, respectively, obtaining SVR. Other than genotype, the predictors of SVR were age ¡Ü 45 years at the start of treatment, completion of unmodified treatment, the absence of cirrhosis and non-European origin.The effectiveness of peginterferon and ribavirin treatment for chronic hepatitis C in a routine clinical practice is comparable to that observed in controlled clinical trials, with a higher SVR rate in genotype 2 and 3 patients compared to genotype 1 patients. Our data further indicate that age at start of treatment is a strong predictor of SVR irrespective of HCV genotype, with patients 45 years or younger having a higher SVR rate.Combination therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin has improved treatment response in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, but the virus is still only eradicated in 50-80% of the patients receiving treatment [1-3], depending on HCV genotype. Treatment is lengthy and has severe side effects, which may lead to dose reduction or even prevent treatment completion. There are also several contraindications to starting treatment, such as ongoing psychiatric disease or active intravenous drug use (IDU). Progress has been made in the development of new direct-acting antiviral drugs, specifically targeting viral replication, and some of these antivirals have recently been studied in clinical trials. The results are promising especially for certain protease inhibitors expected to be licensed soon for the treatment of chronic HCV infection, as part of triple therapy with peginterferon and ribavirin [4]. It is, however, still uncertain when these new agents will be introd
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2334/11/177