Prävalenz und klinische Bedeutung von organspezifischen und nicht-organspezifischen Autoantikörpern bei Patienten mit Hepatitis-C-Infektion

BACKGROUND: Non-organ-specific autoantibodies are found in a considerable number of anti-HCV positive patients. Previous studies investigated the clinical relevance of these antibodies in patients treated with interferon monotherapy, but not combination therapies. METHODS: Anti-nuclear, anti-smooth muscle, anti-mitochondrial, anti-neutrophil-cytoplasmatic and anti-liver/kidney microsomal antibodies were determined in 78 consecutive anti-HCV positive patients by indirect immunofluorescence. The development of these antibodies was related to demographic variables and to the outcome of antiviral combination therapy with interferon-( and ribavirin in 65 patients. RESULTS: In our study, positivity for autoantibodies was associated with higher alanine aminotransferase levels and higher mean values for HCV-RNA (p < 0.01). Furthermore, negativity for non-organ-specific autoantibodies, and specifically absence of SMA, was associated with a highly favourable treatment outcome of combination therapy with at least one negative RT-PCR for HCV-RNA during treatment (OR 4.65, 95% CI 1.31 to 16.48, p = 0.019). ANA and SMA staining patterns and titers were on the other hand not correlated to treatment response. With multiple logistic regression analysis, positivity for autoantibodies and HCV genotype were independently associated with outcome of antiviral combination therapy (p = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: These observations indicate that the absence of non-organ-specific autoantibodies might indicate a significantly higher chance for viral clearance in response to combination therapy for chronic hepatitis C infection. Therefore, despite of an overall higher treatment response, the addition of the immunomodulatory drug ribavirin could accentuate immunological differences that affect treatment outcome and might have been obscured in earlier studies analysing interferon monotherapy.

Grantor dc:publisher

Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University

Year dc:date

2004

Author dc:creator

• Stolte, Christian

Contributors dc:contributor

• Matern, Siegfried

• info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/610
• Medizin
• Hepatitis C
• Autoantikörper
• Interferon-Therapie

Statement dc:rights

• info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Language dc:language

ger

Identifier

https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/search?p=id:%22RWTH-CONV-114608%22

OAI record oai:identifier

https://publications.rwth-aachen.de/oai2d?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_dc&identifier=oai%3Apublications.rwth-aachen.de%3A52380