[Ribavirin treatment in patients with chronic hepatitis C refractory to interferon-alpha]

Four patients with chronic hepatitis C who did not respond to treatment with alpha interferon were treated with oral ribavirin at a dose of 1.000-1.200 mg/day for 6 months. A marked, although transitory, decrease was observed in the transaminase values which returned to pre-treatment values on termination of the same. Normal transaminase values were only obtained at some point in the treatment in two patients. Ribavirin was well tolerated with very slight anemia being detected in all the cases. These results, which are superposable to those of other authors who have studied the effects of this antiviral agent in chronic hepatitis C, suggest that ribavirin may play a role in the treatment of this disease. Given the existing data, this role would be one of a drug associated with interferon with which it may have a synergic action rather than as a monotherapy.