Predictive factors of lack of response to antiviral therapy among in patients with recurrent hepatitis C after liver transplantation.

The current therapy for hepatitis C recurrence after liver transplantation OLT is based on interferon (IFN) and ribavirin (RBV) in monotherapy or combination. The rate of sustained virological response (SVR) varies between 10% and 45%. We have retrospectively analyzed factors that could predict SVR after antiviral therapy. We analyzed 42 patients who completed a cycle of therapy with natural or pegylated IFN plus RBV. There were 15 (35.7%) patients who obtained an SVR. The following factors were significantly associated with a lack of SVR: donor age >or=50 years (P = .046); donor body mass index (BMI) > 27 (P = .016); genotype 1 versus 2 to 3 (P = 0.010), aspartate transferase (AST) before therapy >or= 140 U/L (P = .046), alanine transferase before therapy >or= 280 U/L (P = .055), use of natural IFN versus pegylated IFN (P = .016). The only factors remaining after multivariate analysis were: donor BMI, AST before therapy and genotype. Our data confirmed that genotype 1 was associated with poorer outcomes; other additional parameters can influence the response to antiviral therapy.