Correlation between serum ferritin level and antiviral effect of pegylated interferon in chronic hepatitis C patients with genotype 1b

Objective To investigate the correlation between serum ferritin ( SF) level and antiviral effect of pegylated interferon-α-2a ( Peg-IFNα-2a) in chronic hepatitis C ( CHC) patients. Methods A total of 85 CHC patients who were admitted to The First People's Hospital of Zigong from November 2013 to July 2014 were enrolled and treated with subcutaneous injection of Peg-IFNα-2a 180 μg once a week combined with oral ribavirin 10-15 mg·kg-1·d-1. The course of treatment was 48 weeks and the patients were followed up for 24 weeks after the treatment ended. SF was measured at week 0, and HCV RNA was measured at weeks 0, 4, 12, 24, 48, and 72 to evaluate therapeutic outcome. According to the therapeutic outcome, the patients were divided into rapid virologic response ( RVR) group, early virologic response ( EVR) group, sustained virologic response ( SVR) group, no response group ( NR group) , and recurrence group; according to the SF level, the patients were divided into high-SF group ( ≥400 ng/ml) and low-SF group ( < 400 ng/ml) . An analysis of variance was used for comparison of continuous data between groups, and SNK-q test was used for comparison between any two groups; the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups, and Spearman rank correlation was used for correlation analysis. Results Of all patients, 36 ( 42. 35%) achieved RVR, 70 ( 82. 35%) achieved EVR, 68 ( 80. 00%) achieved SVR, 15 ( 17. 65%) had no response, and 2 ( 2. 35%) experienced recurrence. The NR group and recurrence group had a significant increase in SF level, and the NR group had a significantly higher SF level than RVR group ( 1489. 15 ± 278. 21 ng/ml vs 398. 12 ± 252. 45 ng/ml, q = 10. 826, P < 0. 01) , EVR group ( 1489. 15 ± 278. 21 ng/ml vs 514. 85 ± 275. 64 ng/ml, q = 10. 151, P < 0. 01) , and SVR group ( 1489. 15 ± 278. 21 ng/ml vs486. 45 ± 251. 60 ng/ml, q = 10. 614, P < 0. 01) . SF level was negatively correlated with the therapeutic effect of PEG-IFN ( rs=-0. 688, P< 0. 001) . Compared with the high-SF group, the low-SF group had a significantly higher proportion of patients who achieved RVR ( 85. 29% vs13. 73%, P < 0. 001) , EVR ( 100% vs 70. 59%, P < 0. 001) , or SVR ( 100% vs 66. 67%, P < 0. 001) and a significantly lower proportion of patients who had no response ( 0 vs 29. 41%, P < 0. 001) . Conclusion In CHC patients, SF level before treatment is correlated with the antiviral effect of PEG-IFN, suggesting that SF level can predict the antiviral effect of PEG-IFN in CHC patients.