Assessment of Predictors for Early Resistance to Hepatitis C Virus Treatment

The current standard of treatment for HCV is the combination of pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV). Response to therapy is influenced by different factors related to virus or host characteristics. In this study we detected HCV genotype in some patients with chronic HCV infection—who received interferon plus ribavirin therapy and evaluating some risk factors in early resistance to treatment. These risk factors included age, gender, ALT& AST levels, HCV viral load & genotype. This study included 60 patients with chronic HCV infection and subjected to PEG-INF plus RBV therapy. 40 (gp I) had developed resistance after 12 weeks; while group II are the responders. on comparing patients in group I n = 40 (who developed resistance) to patients in group 2, no = 20 (responders), it has been found that the most important risk factors for developing resistance are the increased viral load of HCV-RNA, and AST.HCV-genotype as a risk factor was significantly higher among cases with genotype 1 and 4 and P value was 0.004. This was followed by ALT and AFP as risk factors with P value 0.004 for each and age with P value 0.026. However, regarding sex of the patients there was no significant difference between group I and II. In conclusion: the most frequent HCV genotype in resistant group were genotype I and IV, while in responder patient were genotype 2 & 3. The most important risk factor in this study is viral load and HCV genotype.