Oxidative status in chronic hepatitis C: The influence of antiviral therapy and prognostic value of serum hydroperoxide assay

The effect of alpha-interferon (alpha-IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) treatment on oxidative status in chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is unknown. Aim : To study the time course of oxidative status in patients with CHC during alpha-IFN and RBV administration, and to evaluate the role of oxidative status in order to predict the therapeutic response. Patients and methods : Fifty one patients with CHC were studied. All received a combination of alpha-IFN and RBV for 6 or 12 months in relation to the type of response. The hydroperoxides concentration in serum test samples by D-ROM test was measured in all of the patients before therapy. In 27 patients, hydroperoxides were also measured during the treatment and during the 12 subsequent months. Results : Cross-sectional analysis demonstrates that patients with a successive long-term response had a lower basal serum hydroperoxide concentration than non-responders (280+/-40.8 vs 337+/-83 CARR Units, p <0.05 ). This resulted to be an independent factor predictive of long-term response in the multi-varied analysis. Longitudinal observation on 27 patients showed that the mean hydroperoxide concentration decreased significantly during treatment (T-0 329+/-79.2 vs T-12 272+/-34.5 CARR Units) and that the decrease in the mean values was mainly due to variations in the relapsers group. Conclusions : Normal basal hydroperoxide concentration helps to predict long-term response to combination therapy. The D-ROM test may be used for screening patients before treatment.