Liver Disease

Chronic Hepatitis-C 

Hepatitis C is a virus which leads to chronic hepatitis, and leads to slowly progressive damage of liver, ultimately resulting in cirrhosis and liver cancer

Route and transmission of virus

  • Transfusion of contaminated blood products
  • Sharing of needle by untrained health care workers
  • Sharing of needle amongst drug abusers

Symptoms

  • Symptoms depend upon the stage of the disease
  • Patient may be totally asymptomatic, diagnosed on screening blood tests
  • Patient with chronic hepatitis may complain of fatigue
  • Patients with advanced liver disease may complain of ascites (fluid in abdomen), feet swelling, vomiting of blood, change in behavior

Following test are done for diagnosis of Chronic Hepatitis C

  • LFT
  • Anti HCV antibody
  • HCV RNA, quantitative and qualitative
  • Treatment depends upon stage of liver disease and genotype of virus
  • Genotype 1 usually requires treatment for 48 weeks with PEG IFN and Ribavarin, Efficacy of treatment is around 50%
  • Genotype 2 and 3 are easy to treat, treatment response is 70-90%, and the duration of treatment is 24 weeks
  • Response rate in previously non responders has improved with addition of Telaprevir and Boceprevir to the Peg
  • Interferon and Ribavarin
  • Recently trail for Sofosbuvir and Ribavarin had shown that injection free treatment without side effect will be available in near future

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