ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>EASL 2010 - Oral Presentations</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css"> </head> <body> <table width="750" align="center" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="MainTable"> <tr> <td><img src="http://www2.kenes.com/liver-congress2010/PublishingImages/top_ei.jpg" width="760" height="129" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="content"><h1>Oral Presentations</h1> <P><b>Session Title:</b> Parallel Session: HEPATITIS C: CLINICAL ADVANCES AND THERAPY<br><b>Presentation Date:</b> Apr 16, 2010</P><h2 align='left'><B>VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENT IMPROVE SVR IN CHRONIC HEPATITIS C (GENOTYPE 1) NAïVE PATIENTS TREATED WITH PEG INTERFERON AND RIBAVIRIN</B></h2> <p align='left'><b>S. Abu Mouch</b><sup>1,2</sup>, Z. Fireman<sup>1,2</sup>, J. Jarchovsky<sup>1,2</sup>, N. Assy<sup>2,3</sup><br> <em><sup>1</sup>Hepatology Unite, <sup>2</sup>Internal Medicine B, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, <sup>3</sup>Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, <sup>4</sup>Gastroenterology, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera, <sup>5</sup>Liver Unit, Ziv Medical Center, Safed, Israel. *saif@hy.health.gov.il</em></p><br> <p align='justify'><b><b>Background: </b></b> The combination therapy of Peg/RBV is considered the standard of care for chronic hepatitis C (HCV). A sustained viral response (SVR) is obtained in 40-50% of naïve HCV patients with genotype 1. Vitamin D is a potent immuno modulator whose impact on SVR of Peg/RBV based treatment of chronic HCV is unknown.<b><br><b>Aim: </b></b> To assess whether the supplement of vitamin D to the conventional Peg/RBV therapy could improve SVR.<b><br><b>Methods: </b></b> Fifty-eight patients with chronic HCV infection were randomized into two groups (intent-to-treat population): 27 (treatment group, age 47±11 yrs, body mass index [BMI] 27±4, 50% male) received pegylated-interferon-alpha2b (1.5 µg/kg once weekly) plus ribavirin (1000-1200 mg/daily) together with vitamin D3 (1000-4000 IU/daily, serum level >32 ng/ml), and 31 (controls, age 49±7 years, BMI 24±3, 60% male) received the same therapy without vitamin D. HCV RNA was assessed by RT-PCR (sensitivity, 50 IU/mL). Undetectable HCV RNA at week 12 and at week 24 post treatment (considered as complete EVR and SVR respectively).<b><br><b>Results: </b></b> Demographics, disease characteristics, ethnicity, baseline biochemical parameters and adherence to treatment were similar in both groups. The treatment group had a higher mean BMI (27±4 vs 24±3; P< 0.01), viral load (68% vs 58%, P< 0.01), and fibrosis (Metavir scores <u>></u>F2: 55% vs 18%, P< 0.001) than the controls. All but one treated patient (96%) and 48% (15/31) controls were HCV-RNA negative at week 12 (P< 0.0001). At week 24 post treatment (SVR): 86% (13/15) of treated patients and 41% (5/12) of controls were HCVRNA negative (P< 0.001). AEs were mostly mild and typical of Peg/RBV. There were no SAE.<b><br><b>Conclusions: </b> </b>Supplement of Vitamin D to conventional Peg/RBV therapy for naïve, genotype 1 patients with chronic infection significantly improve SVR.</p> <br><a href="javascript://;" onclick="history.back()">Back</a><br> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p></td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>