Influence of Uric Acid Levels on Pegylated-Interferon plus Ribavirin Therapy in Patients with Chronic Hepatitis C - Abstract
Introduction: It was aimed in this study to evaluate influence of uric acid levels on pegylated-interferon alpha (PEG-IFN-a) 2a/2b plus ribavirin therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C.
Methods: A total of 165 chronic hepatitis c patients with ages ranging from 20 to 75 years having pre- and post-treatment serum uric acid and HCV-RNA (0, 12, 24, 48 and 72 weeks) levels available were included in the study. These parameters were assessed according to the groups based on response to therapy (sustained virologic response -SVR, relapse and non-responders).
Results: Of the 165 patients, 28 were excluded from hyperuricemia analyses owing to lack of uric acid levels and/or liver biopsies. Of the 137 included, 117 had no hyperuricemia while 20 did (cut-off levels were 7 and 6 mg/dL in males and female, respectively). In univariate analyses, no statistically significant association was established between hyperuricemia and age, waist circumference, HOMA-IR score, sustained virologic response, fibrosis and histologic activity index (p values were 0,61; 0,115; 0,437; 0,645; 0,235 and 0,166; respectively). However, significant association was found between hyperuricemia and body mass index, hypertension, existence of metabolic syndrome and grade of steatosis (p values were 0,045; 0,04; 0,045; 0,007; respectively). No significant relevance was noted between hyperuricemia and the parameters in multivariate analyses.
Conclusion: There has been detected a significant association between hyperuricemia and steatosis in patients with chronic hepatitis C. However, no influence on therapy has been found with regard to uric acid levels. Multicenter studies are required to enlighten this metabolic chaos.