ORiginal Article

Background/Aims: The aim of this study is to investigate the rate of sustained virologic response (SVR) in chronic hepatitis C patients receiving antiviral treatment. Methods: The files of patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with interferon±ribavirin between 1995 and 2009 were reviewed retrospectively. Six months after the end of treatment, pa-tients with negative hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA (<50 IU/mL, as determined by the polymerase chain reaction method) were enrolled in the study. Results: The mean age of 196 patients (89 males) was 46.13±11.10 years (range, 17 to 73 years). In biopsies, the mean stage was 1.50±0.94; his-tological activity index was 7.18±2.43. In total, 139 patients received pegylated interferon (IFN)+ribavirin, 21 patients re-ceived classical IFN+ribavirin, and 36 patients received IFN alone. The HCV genotypes of 138 patients were checked: 77.5 % were genotype 1b, and 22.5 % were other genotypes. After achievement of SVR, the median follow-up period was 33.5 months (range, 6 to 112 months), and in this period relapse was only detected in two patients (1.02%) at 18 and 48 months after treatment. Conclusions: In total, 98.9 % of patients with SVR in chronic hepatitis C demonstrated truly durable responses over the long-term follow-up period of 3 years; relapsed patients had intermittent or low-grade vire-mia. (Gut Liver 2013;7:458-461) Key Words: Chronic hepatitis C; Interferon