["Epidemiological profile of chronic hepatitis C virus patients and his early virological response to pegylated interferon plus ribavirin therapy. Gastroenterology Service, HNCASE EsSALUD Arequipa"].

The present descriptive, retrospective and longitudinal study was designed to determine the epidemic profile of patients infected by hepatitis C virus and chronic hepatitis, as well as to describe the eligibility criteria for treatment with pegilated interferon plus ribavirina and its early virological answer to the treatment. We studied 20 patients treated at Gastroenterology Service of Carlos Seguín Escobedo Hospital of EsSalud between 2004 and 2006. The diagnosis of HVC infection was confirmed by detection of viral RNA with PCR, and the viral load by counting number of RNA copies. The eligibility criteria for antiviral treatment were determined, and also the METAVIR score to determine hepatic fibrosis. After 12 weeks of treatment the patients with eligibility criteria and received treatment were evaluated, and the effectivity of treatment was evaluated with a new determination of viral load. There were more female (15; 75%) than male patients (5; 25%), with ages between 50 and 59 years. The more frequent risk antecedent was blood transfusion (45%), surgery (35%), and traffic accident (10%). The hematological, hepatic, renal and hormonal parameters were in normal range; and the viral load at the moment of diagnosis was of 580 thousand copies mean (between 4100 to 2 millions copies). The most frequent viral genotypes were 1a and 1b. Up to 40% of patients did not fulfilled eligibility criteria for treatment. Nine of 12 patients with eligibility criteria received treatment (75%), 6 of them were evaluated for early virologic response and of them 100,0% had an early virologic response with decrease of post-therapeutic viral load in all but one cases until non-detectable levels. In conclusion our study described the profile of patients infected by HCV with chronic hepatitis in gastroenterology ward of our hospital, and it has been determined that is suggestive that antiviral treatment is highly effective in patients with eligibility criteria for treatment, related to early virologic response.