[Interferon therapy for acute hepatitis C; changes in serum markers associated with HCV and clinical effects]

In order to prevent the progression to chronicity of acute hepatitis C, we treated 22 patients with natural human alpha or beta interferon (IFN) in varying doses (3-6 megaunit) daily, for 4 weeks everyday or TIW for 8 weeks. 14 (63.6%) of the 22 patients was cured with IFN therapy. According to the level of serum HCV RNA, 5 (83%) of the 6 patients with more than 10(5) copies/ml were progressed to chronicity, while 10 (91%) of the 11 patients with less than 10(5) copies/ml were cured. Curative rate on each genotypes was 3/9 (33%) in type II, 2/3 (67%) in type III and 1/2 (50%) in type IV. Positive cases for anti C100-3 before IFN were cured only 2 (28.6%) of the 7 patients, but negative cases were cured in 12 (80%) of the 15 patients. This study reveal that IFN therapy for acute hepatitis C may contribute to prevent the progression to chronicity and that the determination of the level of serum HCV RNA, HCV genotypes and anti C 100-3 levels may be useful to predict that efficacy of IFN and also to make a schedule for successful IFN therapy.