Wakil 2006.

Methods	Study design: randomised trial. ITT analysis: not mentioned.
Participants	County: Egypt. Total number (sample size): 50. Age, years: 38.24 ± 8.56. Sex (male): not stated. Genotype: four. Previous HCV treatment: naive. Inclusion criteria: treatment‐naive chronic hepatitis C patients. Exclusion criteria: not mentioned.
Interventions	Group 1 (n = 18). Drug: peginterferon alpha‐2b. Dosage: 1.5 µg/kg weekly. Group 2 (n = 17). Drug: IFN alpha‐2b. Dosage: 3 MU thrice weekly. Group 3 (n = 15). Drug: IFN alpha‐2b. Dosage: 5 MU thrice weekly. All three groups were given weight‐based ribavirin (1000 mg to 1200 mg).
Outcomes	Sustanied virological response. Adverse events.
Notes	Published abstract only; no data about inclusion and exclusion criteria were provided.
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Comments: Method of sequence generation is not mentioned.
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Unclear risk	Comments: Method of allocation concealment is not mentioned.
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Comments: It is not mentioned whether outcome assessors were blinded.
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Comment: Information was insufficient to permit assessment of whether missing data in combination with the method used to handle missing data were likely to induce bias on the results.
Selective reporting (reporting bias)	Unclear risk	Comment: It is unclear whether all predefined and clinically relevant and reasonably expected outcomes were reported.
Other bias	Low risk	Comment: The study seems to be free of other sources of bias.

ALT = alanine aminotransferase.
 CIFN = consensus interferon.
 HCV = hepatitis C virus.
 HIV = human immunodeficiency virus.
 IFN = interferon.
 ITT = intention‐to‐treat analysis.
 MU = mega units.
 PCR = polymerase chain reaction.
 PEG IFN = pegylated interferon.
 WBC = white blood cells.