Chronic Hepatitis C in Saudi Arabia: Three Years Local Experience in a University Hospital
Hisham O Akbar
1
, *
,
Ahmad Al Ghamdi
2
,
Faten Qattan
2
,
Hind I Fallatah
1
and
Maha Al Rumani
2
1 Department of Internal Medicine, King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, gihepa@yahoo.com, Saudi Arabia
2 Molecular Biology Department, King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, Saudi Arabia
*
Department of Internal Medicine, King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, P. O. Box: 80215 Jeddah 21589, gihepa@yahoo.com, Saudi Arabia. Tel: +96-626408435. Fax: +96-626408315. Email:
gihepa@yahoo.com
Hepatitis Monthly: ,
12 (9) ; 6178
Published Online :
September 30, 2012
Article Type: Research Article
Received:
May 23, 2012
Accepted:
July 28, 2012
DOI : 10.5812/hepatmon.6178
To Cite:
Akbar
H, Al Ghamdi
A, Qattan
F, Fallatah
H, Al Rumani
M. et al. Chronic Hepatitis C in Saudi Arabia: Three Years Local Experience in a University Hospital,
Hepat Mon.
Online ahead of Print
;12(9):6178.
doi: 10.5812/hepatmon.6178 .
Abstract
Background:
Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) is a global infection. In Saudi Arabia, the prevalence of CHC is declining due to the implementation of a blood screening program. However, CHC still remains a leading cause of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
Objectives:
This is a retrospective study of CHC patients at the King Abdul Aziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Patients and Methods:
Out of a total of 291 CHC patients from the hepatology clinic at King Abdul Aziz University hospital, Jeddah, 279 patients were included in the present study. They were primarily male (152, 54.5%), with a mean age of 50.41 1.72 years. The majority of patients were either Saudi (108, 38.7%) or Egyptian (60, 21.5%). A total of 61 patients received combination treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin, and one patient with sickle-cell anemia received pegylated INF monotherapy. Demographic, clinical and laboratory features of the CHC patients, and their responses to treatment were studied.
Results:
Decompensated cirrhosis was documented in 60 patients (21.5%), and hepatocellular carcinoma in 14 (5%). The mean level of serum alanine aminotransferase was 83.6 231 u/L. The predominant genotype among the 70 patients tested, was genotype 4, followed by genotype 1 (39 and 18 patients, respectively). The sustained viral response (SVR) rate was 82.99%. The main predictive factors for SVR were baseline HCV viral load and rapid virologic response (RVR). The mean duration of follow-up was 4.2 .85 years. There were 24 patients who had liver disease-related mortality.
Conclusions:
our data showed that 22% of CHC patients progress to cirrhosis and another 22% had treatment. Liver related mortality was more common in patients with advanced cirrhosis.
Keywords:
Hepatitis C, Chronic; Saudi Arabia; Liver Cirrhosis; Genotyping Techniques; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular; Ribavirin
© 2012, Hepatitis Monthly. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.
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