Influence of the HCV subtype on the virological response to pegylated interferon and ribavirin therapy.

International audienceThe hepatitis C virus genotype is considered to be the most important baseline predictor of a sustained virological response in patients with chronic hepatitis C treated with pegylated interferon and ribavirin. The influence of the subtype on the sustained virological response was investigated in patients infected with genotypes 1, 4, 5 or 6. This study was done on 597 patients with chronic hepatitis C who were given pegylated interferon and ribavirin for 48 weeks. The overall rate of sustained virological response in the 597 patients was 37.8%. Univariate analysis indicated that the sustained virological response of patients infected with subtype 1b (39%) tended to be higher than that of patients infected with subtype 1a (30.6%; p=0.06) and it was similar to those patients infected with subtypes 4a (51.3%, p=0.12) or 4d (51.7%, p=0.16). Multivariate analysis indicated that five factors were independently associated with sustained virological response: the age (OR 0.97; 95% CI = 0.95-0.99), absence of cirrhosis (OR: 2.92; 95% CI = 1.7-5.0; p<0.01), absence of HIV conifection (OR: 2.08; 95% CI = 1.2-3.5; p<0.01), low baseline plasma HCV RNA concentration (OR: 1.74; 95% CI = 1.2-2.6; p