Chronic hepatitis C: hepatic iron content does not correlate with response to antiviral therapy Hepatite C crônica: concentração hepática de ferro não é correlacionada com a resposta ao tratamento antiviral

• Published in: Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de São Paulo
• Main Authors: Patricia da Silva Fucuta Pereira, Ivonete Sandra de Souza e Silva, Silvia Naomi de Oliveira Uehara, Christini Takemi Emori, Valéria Pereira Lanzoni, Antonio Eduardo Benedito Silva, Maria Lucia Gomes Ferraz
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) 2009
• Subjects: Iron; Hepatitis C virus; Interferon; Peginterferon; Ribavirin; Liver biopsy; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Arctic; Ferro
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1590/S0036-46652009000600004; https://doaj.org/article/dec14fd913b447a683e66288a0c90582

The complex interaction between hepatitis C virus infection, iron homeostasis and the response to antiviral treatment remains controversial. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of hepatic iron concentration (HIC) on the sustained virological response (SVR) to antiviral therapy in patients with chronic hepatitis C. A total of 50 patients who underwent pretreatment liver biopsy with assessment of HIC by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy and were subsequently submitted to antiviral treatment with interferon/peginterferon and ribavirin were included in the study. Patients with alcoholism, history of multiple blood transfusion, chronic kidney disease, hemolytic anemia and parenteral iron therapy were excluded. The iron related markers and HIC were compared between those who achieved an SVR and non-responders (NR) patients. The mean age was 45.7 years and the proportion of patients' gender was not different between SVR and NR patients. The median serum iron was 138 and 134 µg/dL (p = 0.9), the median serum ferritin was 152.5 and 179.5 ng/mL (p = 0.87) and the median HIC was 9.9 and 8.2 µmol/g dry tissue (p = 0.51), for SVR and NR patients, respectively. Thus, hepatic iron concentration, determined by a reliable quantitative method, was not a negative predictive factor of SVR in patients with chronic hepatitis C presenting mild to moderate hepatic iron accumulation. A complexa interação entre infecção pelo vírus da hepatite C, homeostase do ferro e resposta ao tratamento antiviral permanece controversa. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a influência da concentração hepática de ferro (CHF) na resposta virológica sustentada (RVS) à terapia antiviral na hepatite C crônica. Foram incluídos 50 pacientes que foram submetidos à biopsia hepática pré-tratamento com determinação da CHF por espectrofotometria de absorção atômica com forno de grafite e tratados posteriormente com interferon/peginterferon e ribavirina. Pacientes com alcoolismo, história de múltiplas transfusões sanguíneas, doença ...