الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 170 |  |  |
| | | from | 170 | | |
Abstract
This study aimed to determine the serum Erythropoietin level in patients with chronic HCV infection before and during antiviral therapy and to evaluate the role of the serum Erythropoietin level and its impact on development of anemia in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus. This study included two groups, group (I) forty patients with chronic HCV diagnosed by HCV Antibody positive and HCV PCR, scheduled for treatment in out patient clinic, tropical medicine department, Minia university Hospital with combination therapy in the form of Peg INF and Ribavirin, group (II) Twenty volunteers seronegative for HCV&HBV with matching age& sex were taken as control . All the patients and control were subjected to the following: - clinical evaluation, laboratory examination as (CBC, liver function tests, serum Hb, EPO and prothrombin time, PCR and Antinuclear antibodies), radiological examination and liver biopsy. In this study there was found a significant difference between the serum haemoglobin level and serum erythropoietin level in HCV patients before and after treatment. The Hb level was normal in the patients before treatment but decreased during treatment. While the serum EPO level was normal in the patients before treatment, but increased during treatment to compensate the response of anemia. from this study there was concluded that anemia is a common adverse reaction of pegylated interferon and ribavirin treatment in patients with chronic viral hepatitis C, ribavirin causes hemolytic anemia in particular, pegylated interferon induces bone marrow suppression, the probability of anemia increases depending on the ribavirin dose, the low of Hb level and the rate of increase of serum EPO level during the first weeks of treatment are predictors of anemia in patients treated with ribavirin and interferon. It is recommended that giving recombinant erythropoietin supplement to overcome anemia induced by combination therapy.