Table 1.
Characteristics of patients with different response to IFN therapy
| Sustained responders | Non-responders | P | |
| Patients (n) | 16 | 69 | |
| Age (yr) | 51.2 ± 10.7 | 52.4 ± 11.1 | NS |
| Male/Female | 14/2 | 47/22 | NS |
| History of blood | 5/11 | 21/48 | NS |
| transfusion (+/-) | |||
| ALT (IU/I) | 110.4 ± 88.0 | 95.6 ± 61.0 | NS |
| Viral load (Meq/mL) | 0.9 ± 0.9 | 6.9 ± 7.8 | 0.0027 |
| Histology | |||
| Grade | 1.9 ± 0.7 | 2.3 ± 0.8 | NS |
| Stage | 1.9 ± 0.7 | 2.5 ± 0.9 | 0.0154 |
| Number of amino acid | |||
| Substitutions in | |||
| ISDR | 5.0 ± 1.2 | 0.7 ± 1.1 | < 0.0001 |
| C-terminal part of E2 | 3.4 ± 1.7 | 2.5 ± 1.2 | 0.0149 |
| N-terminal variable region | 1.6 ± 1.1 | 0.9 ± 0.9 | 0.0148 |
| Substitution of aa 625 (+/-) | 6/10 | 8/61 | 0.0213 |