Ribavirin monotherapy increases sustained response rate in relapsers of end treatment virologic responders

Table 1 Base-line characteristics of patients who underwent combination therapy.

	Total	Non-responder	SVR	Relapser
Sex (m/f)	25/37	10/16	10/14	5/7
Age (yr)	51.5±11.1	50.2±12.5	52.6±9.6	52.9±10.7
HCV genotype (%)
1a	-	-	-	-
1b	49 (79)	22/26 (84.6)	18/24 (75)	9/12 (75)
2a	5 (8)	1/26 (3.8)	3/24 (12.5)	1/12 (8)
2b	8 (13)	3/26 (11.5)	3/24 (12.5)	2/12 (17)
Cirrhosis (%)	16/62 (26)	9/26 (35)	5/24 (21)	2/12 (17)
HCV-RNA (%)	6/62 (10)	2/26 (8)	2/24 (8)	2/12 (17)
titer >2 Meq copies/mL
HAI score	9.5±3.8	10.6±4.3	8.6±2.4	8.7±31

No statistical difference in pair comparisons of sex, age, genotypes, cirrhosis, patient number of HCV-RNA titer >2Meq/mL and HAI scores in non-responders, sustained virologic responders and relapsers.

Table 2 Demography of patients with sustained virologic response after ribavirin monotherapy.

Gender, age (yr)	Genotype (b)	HCV-RNA	ALT elevation (mo)	Monotherapy (mo)	Cirrhosis
F53 (Meq/mL)	1	3.81	2	3	+
F43 (Meq/mL)	2	0.061	1	1	–
F491 (Meq/mL)	1	0.011	2	1	–
F57 (copies/mL)	2	<100	1	2	–
F50 (copies/mL)	1	<100	2	1	–
M50 (copies/mL)	1	<100	1	2	–
M58 (copies/mL)	1	<100	5	2	–

Note: ALT elevation denotes the onset of ALT ≥1.5× normal upper limit after combination therapy in months. Monotherapy denotes the onset of ribavirin monotherapy after biochemical relapse in months. ¹Non-responder at the cessation of combination therapy.