Efficacy and safety of treatment of hepatitis C virus infection in renal transplant recipients

Table 6 Summary of some reports on the efficacy and rejection rate following the use of interferon alone or in combination with ribavirin in post renal transplant hepatitis C virus infection

Ref.	Yr	No. of patientstreated	Anti HCV therapy used(No. of patients)	Immunosuppression used(% of patients)	ETR (%)	SVR (%)	Rate of allograftrejection/failure (%)
Ozgur et al[32]	1995	5	CI alone (5)	CNI (100)	NR	NR	40
				Aza (100)
				S (100)
Rosting et al[31]	19951	14	CI alone (14)	CNI (85.7)	28.60	0	35.70
				Aza (50)
				S (85.7)
Hanafusa et al[14]	1998	10	CI alone (10)	CNI (NS)	10	0	40
				Aza (100)
				S (100)
Baid et al[27]	20032	12	CI + R (11)	CNI (100)	NS	33	17
			CI alone (1)	Aza (17)
				C (67)
				S (100)
Sharma et al[26]	20063	6	CI + R (5)	CNI (100)	66.60	33.30	66.60
			PEG-INF + R (1)	Aza (50)
				C (14)
				S (100)
Pageaux et al[67]	2009	8	PEG-INF + R (4)	CNI (75)	75	50	0
			PEG-INF alone (4)	Aza (37.5)
				C (25)
				S (100)
Aljumah et al	Current study	19	PEG-INF + R (19)	CNI (89.5)	47.40	42.10	5.30
				C (78.9)
				S (100)

HCV: Hepatitis C virus; CI: Conventional interferon; PEG-IFN: Pegylated interferon; R: Ribavirin; CNI: Calcineurin inhibitors; C: Cellcept; S: Steroids; Aza:azathioprine; ETR: End of treatment response; SVR: Sustained virological response; NR: Not reported; NS: Not specified.

¹Five patients developed acute renal failure, but biopsy did not confirm rejection.

²CI changed to PEG-IFN in 3 patients but study did not specify these patients.

³In this study 8 patients received ribavirin alone without interferon, so they were not included. ³Four patients developed severe renal dysfunction, only one patient biopsied and showed chronic allograft nephropathy.