Histological prognostic markers in interferon treated chronic hepatitis C patients

Objective: To identify various predictive histological features of response to interferon-alpha (IFN-alpha) therapy in serologically proven HCV infected cases. Design: A prospective study. Place and Duration of study: The study was conducted between July,1998 to July, 2000 at the Department of Histopathology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Rawalpindi. Patients and Methods: This study included 40 selected patients who were serologically positive for anti HCV. These selected patients were treated with IFN-alpha for 3 months. Results of pre-treatment serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and after 3 months of post-treatment were recorded. Results: On the basis of ALT levels before and after IFN-alpha treatment, responders (having normalization of serum ALT level) and partial / non responders were identified. Seventeen (42.5%) cases were found to be responders while 23 (57.5%) were partial/ non responders. The significant differences in histological features seen on liver biopsy were bridging fibrosis / cirrhosis in 14 (60.8%) of non/partial responder cases as compared to 2 (11.7%) in responders. Twenty-two cases (95.6%) of partial / non partial responder group showed moderate to marked portal tract inflammation, 18 (78.2%) revealed moderate to marked piecemeal necrosis and 12 (52.1%) had intra parenchymal inflammation. Conclusion: The histological findings suggest that higher scores of fibrosis, portal tract and intra parenchymal inflammation, and piecemeal necrosis in liver biopsies are predictors of poor response to IFN-alpha therapy in chronic hepatitis c patients. (author)