Agha Babar Hussain, Zahur Ur Rehman, Waheeduz Zaman Tariq, Karamat Ahmed Karamat, Suhaib Ahmed, Tassawar Hussain, Abdus Sattar.
Comparison of Hepatitis C viremia and serum ALT for monitoring of treatment response in HCV infected patients.
Pak J Pathol Jan ;11(4):25-7.

A study was carried out at Armed Forces Institute of Pathology Rawalpindi with an objective to evaluate the usefulness of serum ALT in monitoring response to treatment in patients with HCV liver disease. Between January to June 2001, 204 anti HCV positive patients on interferon and ribazol for 3-12 months were referred to AFIP for evaluation. Their ages ranged between 18-60 years. All the patients had raised serum ALT and Hepatitis-C viraemia (by PCR) before the start of treatment. At the follow-up visit, the same serum from each patient was tested for ALT and qualitative HCV PCR. Out of the 204 cases, 148 (72.4%) had no detectable HCV viraemia (responders) while the remaining 56 were PCR positive (non responders). ALT was within normal limits in 145/148 (98%) responders. However, 19/56 (34%) non-responders also had normal ALT in spite of detectable HCV viraemia.

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