Table 4.
Variables associated with rates of SVR‡ in chronic HCV patients treated with interferon plus ribavirin standard therapy (N = 400).
| Variable | Total No. of treated patients (n = 400) |
Achieved SVR (n = 202) |
SVR rate, % | P-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age, years | ||||
| ≤ 40 | 251 | 144 | 57.4 | 0.022 |
| > 40 | 149 | 58 | 38.9 | |
| Sex | ||||
| Female | 120 | 68 | 56.7 | NS |
| Male | 280 | 134 | 47.8 | |
| Ethnic group | ||||
| Pushtoon | 78 | 54 | 69.2 | 0.026 |
| Punjabi | 299 | 136 | 45.5 | |
| Sindhi | 11 | 5 | 45.5 | |
| Baloch | 12 | 6 | 50.0 | |
| Pre-treatment viral load | ||||
| < 0.2 MIU/mL | 291 | 173 | 59.5 | 0.001 |
| > 0.2 MIU/mL | 109 | 29 | 26.6 | |
| Rapid virological response | ||||
| Achieved | 186 | 139 | 74.7 | 0.04 |
| Not achieved | 214 | 63 | 29.4 | |
| HCV genotype | ||||
| 2, 3 or mixed with 2&3 | 315 | 181 | 57.5 | 0.005 |
| 1, 4, 5, 6 or mixed | 85 | 21 | 24.7 | |
| Cirrhosis† | ||||
| Present | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0.021 |
| Absent | 41 | 23 | 56.09 | |
| Pre-treatment ALT | ||||
| Moderately high | 239 | 121 | 50.6 | NS |
| Very high | 161 | 81 | 50.3 | |
‡SVR-Sustained virologic response, defined as undetectable HCV RNA 24 weeks after end of anti-viral treatment.
†The number of participants does not add up to400 for one variable due to it being not applicable.