الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Hepatitis C is sometimes called the “silent epidemic” because symptoms are often attributed to other illnesses during the earlier stages of infection. Moreover, there has been more than a five-fold increase in the number of laboratory-confirmed reports of hepatitis C infection over the last two decades The ultimate goal of CHC treatment is to reduce the occurrence of end-stage liver disease and its complications including decompensated cirrhosis, liver transplantation, and HCC. However, because progression of liver disease occurs over a long period of time, clinicians use sustained virologic response (SVR), defined as lack of detection of HCV RNA in blood several months after completing a course of treatment, to determine treatment success. SVR is considered a virologic cure.Total duration of treatment and choice of regimen may depend on HCV genotype or subtype and disease factors such as the HCV RNA level or the presence or absence of cirrhosis. In the last decades, quality of life (QOL) has become an increasingly important outcome measure in clinical research. Whilst a variety of generic QOL measures have been developed, there is a need of |