Volume 24, Issue 103, May - June, 2020

Efficacy of direct-acting antivirals on elimination of HCV and its effect on platelet in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus

Basem M. M. Salama^1♦, Khaled Elmola², Mohamed Heiza²

¹Community Medicine Department, Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt; and Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University, KSA.
²Tropical Medicine Department, Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt

^♦Corresponding author
Community Medicine Department, Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Egypt; Email: drbasemsalama@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease. Left untreated, up to 25% of patients will develop liver cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV infection associated with lower PLT and an increase in PLT count would be expected after viral elimination. The advent of the new direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) has increased enormously the sustained virological response (SVR) rates. This study aimed: to assess the efficacy of DAA in treatment of HCV and its impact on platelets count. Subject and methods: a prospective cohort study included patients with chronic hepatitis C, subjected to direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) therapy between March, 2017 and June, 2019. Results: a total 293 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection completed the treatment course. After the end of treatment Svr12 were 95.4 %. Twelve 12 weeks after end of treatment, only 127 out of 293 patients who met the inclusion criteria, and they were entered our final result analysis 38% of them had cirrhosis and 62% t had no cirrhosis. Patients with cirrhosis were a significantly have lower PLT (p= 0.001) count compared to patients without cirrhosis. While cirrhotic patients were a significantly have a higher, ALT (p= 0.047) AST (p= 0.001), albumin (p= 0.001), FIB-4 (p = 0.003). Compared to pretreatment, viral elimination leads to a significant rise in PLT count at completion of therapy and continues up to 12 months post treatment, representing an improvement in liver function. Conclusion: Our results indicate that DAA treatment is effective with HCV infection, and viral elimination leads to a significant rise in PLT count.

Keywords: direct-acting antiviral, cirrhosis, platelets and hepatitis C virus

Medical Science, 2020, 24(103), 1600-1605

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