Abstract
Background: A considerable amount of evidence showed how metabolic factors may influence the natural history of patients with chronic hepatitis C and affect the outcome of antiviral therapies. Aim: To evaluate the clinical significance of visceral adiposity index (VAI) as a new predictor of early and sustained virological response (SVR) in hepatitis C patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 50 hepatitis C virus infected patients under treatment with pegylated interferon and ribavirin and who had a baseline serum lipid profile were included in this prospective study. Results of lipoprotein profiles and clinical data, including body mass index and waist circumference, were compared between patients with a sustained virological response and non-SVR or a non-virological response (NVR) and virological responses other than NVR (non-NVR). In addition, significant predictive factors independently associated with virological response to peg-IFNα-2b plus RBV were determined by statistical analysis. Results: End of treatment complete response was seen in 56% (n=28) and whereas 26% (n=13) were breakthroughers. SVR was seen in 40% (n=20) patients giving 60% failure response. The basal VAI was low in SVR (mean + SD = 1.27 + 0.7) in comparison to the failure group (1.7 + 0.8) and tend to be not markedly elevated at the 48 week when compared with the failure group (1.6 + 56 and 2.22 + 0.71, respectively). Conclusion: Pre-treatment and on-treatment VAI can predict response to treatment and SVR that can help in individualizing treatment and patient selection and optimize treatment outcomes.