Linked Life Data

7590650

Source:http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/id/7590650

Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
5
pubmed:dateCreated
1995-12-14
pubmed:abstractText
Interferon alfa (IFN) therapy is efficacious in chronic viral hepatitides. It may, however, cause adverse immunologic reactions in patients with concomitant autoimmune phenomena. A minority of patients with chronic type C hepatitis have antibodies against liver and kidney microsomes (anti-LKM) in serum. We therefore carried out this study to find out whether IFN is safe and efficacious also in this subgroup. We treated 92 consecutive cases of chronic hepatitis C with IFN. Twelve patients had anti-LKM< and the remaining 80 tested negative to the anti-LKM. The hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was diagnosed on the basis of positive anti-HCV and HCV-RNA tests. We compared the clinical and virological virological results of the therapy and the side effects found in the two groups. We found that the response to therapy and the outcome after 1 year of follow-up were similar. Treatment was discontinued in one anti-LKM-positive patient because of a drastic increase in ALT levels at the fourth month of therapy. No untoward effect was observed in the other cases. Hepatitis C patients with anti-LKM may be exposed to an increased risk of an adverse hepatitic reaction while being treated with IFN. However, we found that the extent of the risk was minimal compared with the expected benefits of the therapy. IFN is therefore recommended as the first therapy to choose in these patients. They must, however, be monitored more closely for possible liver dysfunction than the ordinary hepatitis C patient.
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:month
Nov
pubmed:issn
0270-9139
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Print
pubmed:volume
22
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
1374-8
pubmed:dateRevised
2004-11-17
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed:year
1995
pubmed:articleTitle
Efficacy and safety of interferon alfa therapy in chronic hepatitis C with autoantibodies to liver-kidney microsomes.
pubmed:affiliation
Dipartimento di Gastroenterologia, Ospedale Molinette, Torino, Italy.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Clinical Trial