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. 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, Author(s). 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.
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under
Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 4.0 International License .
Readers' Comments