Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Unlabelled
Computer-assisted morphometry can provide precise measurement of hepatic fibrosis on a continuous scale. Previous morphometric studies of large cohorts of patients with treatment refractory chronic hepatitis C have shown a mean increase in fibrosis of 30% to 58% in 1 year. The aim of the present study was to quantify fibrosis progression in biopsy specimens obtained over 1.5 to 5 years from three groups of patients with baseline bridging fibrosis or cirrhosis (Ishak stages 3-6) enrolled in the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-term Treatment Against Cirrhosis Trial. The main group of 346 lead-in nonresponders (viremic after 24 weeks of peginterferon-ribavirin therapy) had a mean fibrosis increase of 61% over pretreatment baseline after 2 years and 80% after 4 years. In contrast, the 78 breakthrough/relapse patients (undetectable serum hepatitis C virus RNA after 24 weeks of peginterferon-ribavirin and receiving antiviral therapy for 48 weeks) showed a mean increase in fibrosis of 48% when biopsied 36 months from pretreatment baseline but no further increase at 60 months. Finally, the 111 express patients with baseline biopsies following unsuccessful peginterferon-ribavirin outside the trial had significantly more baseline fibrosis than the others but an increase of only 21% after 21 months and a slight decrease at 45 months. Maintenance therapy with low-dose peginterferon had no effect on fibrosis changes in any of the groups.Conclusion
Morphometry demonstrated complex, nonlinear changes in fibrosis over time in this heterogeneous cohort of patients with interferon-refractory chronic hepatitis C.
SUBMITTER: Goodman ZD
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3707633 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Goodman Zachary D ZD Stoddard Anne M AM Bonkovsky Herbert L HL Fontana Robert J RJ Ghany Marc G MG Morgan Timothy R TR Wright Elizabeth C EC Brunt Elizabeth M EM Kleiner David E DE Shiffman Mitchell L ML Everson Gregory T GT Lindsay Karen L KL Dienstag Jules L JL Morishima Chihiro C
Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) 20091201 6
<h4>Unlabelled</h4>Computer-assisted morphometry can provide precise measurement of hepatic fibrosis on a continuous scale. Previous morphometric studies of large cohorts of patients with treatment refractory chronic hepatitis C have shown a mean increase in fibrosis of 30% to 58% in 1 year. The aim of the present study was to quantify fibrosis progression in biopsy specimens obtained over 1.5 to 5 years from three groups of patients with baseline bridging fibrosis or cirrhosis (Ishak stages 3-6 ...[more]