Treatment with pirfenidone for two years decreases fibrosis, cytokine levels and enhances CB2 gene expression in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Table 5 Biochemical measurements of patients

Treat	< 2 years			2 years			Intention to treat
No. patients	6			28			34
Biochemical data	Before	After	P value	Before	After	P value	Before	After	P value
ALT (mean ± SD)	67 ± 25	59 ± 20	0.63	85 ± 71	65 ± 34	0.13	82 ± 68	64 ± 32	0.23
AST (mean ± SD)	95 ± 38	87 ± 38	1.0	94 ± 55	75 ± 38	0.02*	94 ± 54	78 ± 38	0.02*
Total Bilirubin (mean ± SD)	2 ± 1.7	3.1 ± 1.5	0.16	1 ± 0.8	1 ± 0.5	0.04*	1.4 ± 0.9	1.4 ± 1.1	0.46
Direct Bilirubin (mean ± SD)	0.8 ± 0.5	1.5 ± 0.9	0.03*	0.4 ± 0.3	0.4 ± 0.2	0.63	0.5 ± 0.3	0.6 ± 0.6	0.46
Indirect Bilirubin (mean ± SD)	1.3 ± 0.9	1.6 ± 0.9	0.56	0.8 ± 0.7	0.6 ± 0.4	0.05*	0.9 ± 0.7	0.8 ± 0.6	0.31

ISSN: 1471-230X