Alanine aminotransferase normalization at week 8 predicts viral response during hepatitis C treatment

Table 2 Comparison of baseline characteristics and virological responses according to the initial alanine aminotransferase level in patients with and without rapid virological response n (%)

	Patients with RVR (Group 1)		P1value	Patients without RVR (Group 2)		P1value
	Initial abnormal	Initial normal		Initial abnormal	Initial normal
	ALT level	ALT level		ALT level	ALT level
	(Group 1h,n= 33)	(Group 1n,n= 19)		(Group 2h,n= 49)	(Group 2n,n= 50)
Age, yr	54.3 ± 13.8	58.6 ± 8.3	0.222	56.6 ± 12.6	59.2 ± 9.2	0.246
Male	18 (54.6)	6 (31.6)	0.114	26 (53.1)	25 (50.0)	0.763
Initial ALT (IU/ L)	122.4 ± 125.3	26.4 ± 8.2	0.002	78.1 ± 43.9	26.8 ± 7.4	0.000
HCV RNA (log10 IU/mL)	5.6 ± 0.9	5.1 ± 1.4	0.139	6.2 ± 0.9	6.1 ± 0.7	0.748
cEVR	33 (100)	19 (100)	NA	29 (59)	29 (58)	0.906
ETR	30 (91)	18 (95)	0.626	26 (53)	30 (60)	0.491
SVR	43 (82)	40 (84)	0.83	18 (37)	22 (44)	0.466
ISHAK Score, mean ± SD
Biopsy of receipt	17 (51.5)	14 (73.7)	0.121	33 (67.4)	30 (60)	0.453
HAI	9.6 ± 3.7	8.0 ± 3.9	0.257	8.7 ± 2.6	7.7 ± 3.0	0.164
Fibrosis score	2.9 ± 1.2	2.9 ± 1.4	0.957	3.0 ± 1.4	2.4 ± 1.4	0.100

¹Student’s t test. RVR: Rapid virological response; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; HCV: Hepatitis C virus; EVR: Early virological response; ETR: End of treatment response; SVR: Sustained virological response; HAI: Histological activity index.