Background/Aim.Virological testing is considered to be essential in the management of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in order to diagnose infection, and, most importantly, as a quide for treatment decisions and assess the virological response to antiviral therapy.The aim of this study was to determine the rate of a sustained virological response (SVR) and various factors associated with response rates in chronic hepatitis C infected patients treated with pegiinterferon alpha (PEGINF) and ribavirin timbren gmfk25s (RBV) combination therapy.Methods.A total of 34 patients, treated with PEG-IFN and RBV were studied.
Serum HCV-RNA was measured before the treatment, 12 weeks following the start of the therapy and 6 weeks after the treatment cessation.SVR was defined as undetectable serum HCV-RNA 6 months of post-treatment follow-up, virologic relapse (VR) as relapse of HCV-RNA during the post-treatment follow-up.Serum HCV-RNA was measured with the Cobas Amplicor test.Results.At the end of post-treatment follow-up 19 (55.
8%) patients demonstrated a SVR.The majority of the patients were genotype 1 (27), and the other were genotype 3 (5 patients) and genotype 4 (2 patients).There was VR in 6 patients 6 months after the therapy.In 9 patients HCV-RNA was positive after 12 weeks.Conclusion.
We demonstrated that patients with chronic HCV infection can be successfully treated with crafthouse by fortessa glass smoking box with handheld smoker combination of PEG-INF and RBV.This result emphasizes also that post-treatment follow-up to identify patients with SVR or VR could be important.