Two-year biochemical, virological, and histological follow-up in patients with chronic hepatitis C responding in a sustained fashion to interferon alfa-2b treatment

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Abstract
Fourteen patients with chronic hepatitis C who had a sustained response to a 60-week interferon alfa-2b treatment course were followed, biochemically and virologically, 2 years after treatment cessation. Biopsies were repeated in 12 of 14 for histological and virological evaluation at 2-year follow-up. All 14 patients had normal serum alanine transaminase (s-ALT) levels and were negative for hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA in serum during treatment and at short-term follow-up 6 months posttreatment. At 2-year follow-up, 13 patients still had normal ALT levels (<0.6 μkat/L for women; <0.8 μkat/L for men), 1 a near normal level (0.76 μkat/L); all were HCV RNA negative in serum, and 11 of 12 also in the liver. Liver histology improved during treatment and remained stable during the 2-year follow-up. The authors conclude that most sustained responders, who have normal ALT levels and are nonviremic at short-term follow-up 6 months after interferon treatment, will continue to have a durable long-term response without relapse of the viremia. (Hepatology 1995; 21:918-922.)

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