The Effect of Antiviral Therapy on Lipid Metabolism in Patients with Viral Hepatitis C

The liver is the main metabolic organ, having complex physiological and biochemical roles, many of these functions being in a close relationship. It is also well known that hepatitis C virus infection is associated with changes in lipid metabolism. This is evident in liver dysfunctions, when liver functions are disturbed simultaneously. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of antiviral therapy on serum lipid level in patients with viral hepatitis C before and at the end of the 48 weeks of treatment compared patients treated with Interferon vs Interferon + Ribavirin and relation with sustained virological response, from North East Romania. We evaluated patients hospitalized in Emergency Hospital for Children St. Mary Iasi between 2009-2017. The result of our study show that the mean age of patients from goup 1 was 11.85 +/- 3.65 years, vs 11.5 +/- 3.1 years in group 2 (p=0.171). We found changes in cholesterol metabolism in both groups of patients, increases in total cholesterol level, 21.43% of patients in the group 1 vs 32.3% in goup 2 (p=0.258) and decreases 17.86% vs 14.7% (p=0.131). At initiation of antiviral therapy mean serum cholesterol level were 155.78 +/- 36.30 mg/dL, in group 1 vs 149.88 +/- 47.22 mg/dL, for group 2. At 48 weeks of treatment in the both goups revealed significantly decreased of total cholesterol levels 136.46 +/- 41.63mg/dL, for group 1 vs 109.26 +/- 41.05, for patients in group 2 (p=0.003). Triglycerides, HDL cholesterol and LDL cholesterol did not show significant changes in the patients of the two groups. Total cholesterol level after antiviral therapy were significantly different between patients who achieved SVR and non SVR (p=0.014), group 1 vs (p=0.001), group 2. Total serum cholesterol level showed significant changes during the antiviral therapy in both monotherapy and combination therapy group.