Efficacy of direct-acting antivirals on elimination of HCV and its effect on platelet in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus

Background: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease. Left untreated, up to 25% of patients will develop liver cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma. HCV infection associated with lower PLT and an increase in PLT count would be expected after viral elimination. The advent of the new direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for hepatitis C virus (HCV) has increased enormously the sustained virological response (SVR) rates. This study aimed: to assess the efficacy of DAA in treatment of HCV and its impact on platelets count. Subject and methods: a prospective cohort study included patients with chronic hepatitis C, subjected to direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) therapy between March, 2017 and June, 2019. Results: a total 293 patients with chronic hepatitis C infection completed the treatment course. After the end of treatment Svr12 were 95.4 %. Twelve 12 weeks after end of treatment, only 127 out of 293 patients who met the inclusion criteria, and they were entered our final result analysis 38% of them had cirrhosis and 62% t had no cirrhosis. Patients with cirrhosis were a significantly have lower PLT (p= 0.001) count compared to patients without cirrhosis. While cirrhotic patients were a significantly have a higher, ALT (p= 0.047) AST (p= 0.001), albumin (p= 0.001), FIB-4 (p = 0.003). Compared to pretreatment, viral elimination leads to a significant rise in PLT count at completion of therapy and continues up to 12 months post treatment, representing an improvement in liver function. Conclusion: Our results indicate that DAA treatment is effective with HCV infection, and viral elimination leads to a significant rise in PLT count.