A study of best positive predictors for sustained virologic response to interferon alpha plus ribavirin therapy in naive chronic hepatitis C patients

Table 4 Variables associated with rates of SVR^‡ in chronic HCV patients treated with interferon plus ribavirin standard therapy (N = 400).

Variable	Total No. of treated patients (n = 400)	Achieved SVR (n = 202)	SVR rate, %	P-value
Age, years
≤ 40	251	144	57.4	0.022
> 40	149	58	38.9
Sex
Female	120	68	56.7	NS
Male	280	134	47.8
Ethnic group
Pushtoon	78	54	69.2	0.026
Punjabi	299	136	45.5
Sindhi	11	5	45.5
Baloch	12	6	50.0
Pre-treatment viral load
< 0.2 MIU/mL	291	173	59.5	0.001
> 0.2 MIU/mL	109	29	26.6
Rapid virological response
Achieved	186	139	74.7	0.04
Not achieved	214	63	29.4
HCV genotype
2, 3 or mixed with 2&3	315	181	57.5	0.005
1, 4, 5, 6 or mixed	85	21	24.7
Cirrhosis ^†
Present	16	0	0	0.021
Absent	41	23	56.09
Pre-treatment ALT
Moderately high	239	121	50.6	NS
Very high	161	81	50.3

^‡SVR-Sustained virologic response, defined as undetectable HCV RNA 24 weeks after end of anti-viral treatment.
^†The number of participants does not add up to400 for one variable due to it being not applicable.

ISSN: 1471-230X