As the Hepatitis D thrives in patients with presence of Hbsag which could be present in both active and inactive carriers of hepatitis B. If interferon is active against Hepatitis B thereby eliminating Hepatitis D simultaneously then interferon should be given to those patients of hepatitis D who are active carriers of hepatitis B.
The response is positive and although interferon is the only approved anti-HDV therapy, evidence regarding the efficacy and safety of its various regimens is either old or scattered. We did a systematic review with collaboration of Mario Rizzetto and it indicates that standard dose of peginterferon is more effective than high dose of standard interferon as anti-HDV therapy. For more information you can read this:
Alavian SM, Tabatabaei SV, Behnava B, Rizzetto M. Standard and pegylated interferon therapy of HDV infection: A systematic review and meta- analysis. J Res Med Sci. 2012;17(10):967-74. Epub 2013/07/05.
You can find the full text of systematic review regarding HDV therapy in attached file.
I agree with Dr Samiullah about the very high numbers of HDV therapy in their study group. I read with interest their publication. There are some points for more discussion:
1- The SVR is higher than literature, 29.4%. May be it is related to sampling and the cirrhotics were less than other studies.
2- I think when HDV RNA in a case with HBs Ag positive is positive, we can not put the case as inactive carrier. It is a chronic HBV/HDV infection and the case needs to therapy.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Medicine
- Disease
- Infectious Diseases