Porphyria cutanea tarda as a Predictor of Poor Response to Interferon Alfa Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C

I Fernández; G Castellano; R E de Salamanca; F Colina; A Gómez de la Cámara; M J Morán; R Muñoz; J A Solís-Herruzo

doi:10.1080/00365520310000672a

Porphyria cutanea tarda as a Predictor of Poor Response to Interferon Alfa Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis C

Scand J Gastroenterol. 2003 Mar;38(3):314-319. doi: 10.1080/00365520310000672a.

Authors

I Fernández¹, G Castellano¹, R E de Salamanca¹, F Colina¹, A Gómez de la Cámara¹, M J Morán¹, R Muñoz¹, J A Solís-Herruzo¹

Affiliation

¹ a Depts. of Gastroenterology, Unit for the Study of Porphyrias, Pathology and Clinical Epidemiology , Hospital Universitario '12 de Octubre' , Madrid , Spain.

PMID: 28248596
DOI: 10.1080/00365520310000672a

Abstract

Background: Porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) is sometimes associated with hepatitis C virus chronic infection. The aim of this study was to describe the effect of interferon alfa (IFN-a) in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C and PCT.

Methods: We treated a total of 66 patients with chronic hepatitis C with IFN-a 2b (5 MU t.i.w.) for 12 months. Twenty-two of these patients suffered from PCT as well. These patients differed from patients without PCT in that they were men, past history of alcohol abuse and HFE gene mutations were more common and the source of infection was almost always unknown.

Results: Sustained virologie response was obtained in 19.7% of the 66 treated patients, 27.3% in the non-PCT group and 4.5% in the PCT group (P < 0.05). This difference could not be ascribed to the difference in sex of patients, history of alcohol abuse, HCV genotype or iron status.

Conclusion: Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that PCT is independently and significantly associated with non-sustained response to IFNa therapy. In conclusion, patients with chronic hepatitis C and PCT rarely responded to IFNa treatment.

Keywords: Chronic hepatitis; HFE gene mutations; iron status.