Author/Editor		Selič, Tanja; Lešničar, Gorazd; Poljak, Mario; Meglič-Volkar, Jelka; Rajter, Mojca; Prah, Janja; Baklan, Zvonko; Kotar, Tadeja; Matičič, Mojca
Title		Impact of added fluvastatin to standard-of-care treatment on sustained virological response in naïve chronic hepatitis C Patients infected with genotypes 1 and 3
Type		članek
Vol. and No.		Letnik 57, št. 1
Publication year		2013
Volume		str. 23-30
ISSN		0300-5526 - Intervirology
Language		eng
Abstract		Objectives: The combination of pegylated interferon-alpha and ribavirin is a standard-of-care (SOC) treatment for chronic hepatitis C (CHC), and it achieves a sustained virological response (SVR) in 41-52% of genotype 1 and in 73-79% of genotype 3 patients. In a few clinical trials, the combination of fluvastatin and SOC increased the SVR in genotype 1 patients. Methods: This prospective study enrolled 179 naïve CHC patients. In the fluvastatin group patients received the combination of SOC and fluvastatin 80 mg daily; historical controls matching the study group in genotype, age and gender were treated with the SOC treatment only. Results: On-treatment viral responses as well as the SVR did not differ significantly between the two groups, except for the genotype 1 patients with a high viral load presenting a significantly higher SVR rate in the fluvastatin group (75%) compared to the control group (41%; p = 0.024). Multivariate logistic regression identified hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 3 infection (p < 0.001), age >-40 years (p < 0.001), liver steatosis <5% (p < 0.01) and low viral load (p < 0.001) as independent predictors of an SVR. Conclusion: A combination of fluvastatin and SOC significantly improved the SVR in naïve CHC patients infected with HCV genotype 1 and high viral load, but it did not improve the SVR in patients infected with HCV genotype 3.
Keywords		ribavirin chronic hepatitis C virological response ribavirin kronični hepatitis C virološki odziv