<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Elefsiniotis, Ioannis S</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Pavlidis, Christos</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Vezali, Elena</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Mariolis-Sapsakos, Theodoros</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Koutsounas, Sotirios</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Saroglou, George</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Impact of hepatitis B exposure on sustained virological response rates of highly viremic chronic hepatitis C patients.</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Gastroenterol Res Pract</style></secondary-title><alt-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Gastroenterol Res Pract</style></alt-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2009</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2009</style></date></pub-dates></dates><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2009</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">812140</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">AIM: To evaluate the impact of hepatitis B core antibody (anti-HBc) seropositivity in sustained virological response (SVR) rates in treatment-naïve, chronic hepatitis C (CHC) patients with high pretreatment viral load (&gt;800000 IU/mL).

METHODS: 185 consecutive CHC patients (14.4% cirrhotics, 70.2% prior intravenous drug users) treated with pegylated interferon-a2b plus ribavirin, for 24 or 48 weeks based on viral genotype, were retrospectively analyzed. SVR was confirmed by undetectable serum HCV-RNA six months after the end of treatment schedule.

RESULTS: Thirty percent of CHC/HBsAg-negative patients were anti-HBc-positive. Anti-HBc positivity was more prevalent in cirrhotic, compared to noncirrhotic patients (76.9% versus 19.5%, P &lt; .05). Serum HBV-DNA was detected in the minority of anti-HBc-positive patients (1.97%). Overall, 62.1% of patients exhibited SVR, while 28.6% did not; 71.4% of non-SVRs were infected with genotype 1. In the univariate analysis, the anti-HBc positivity was negatively associated with treatment outcome (P = .065). In the multivariate model, only the advanced stage of liver disease (P = .015) and genotype-1 HCV infection (P = .003), but not anti-HBc-status (P = .726), proved to be independent predictors of non-SVR.

CONCLUSION: Serum anti-HBc positivity does not affect the SVR rates in treatment-naïve CHC patients with high pretreatment viral load, receiving the currently approved combination treatment.</style></abstract><custom1><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19390651?dopt=Abstract</style></custom1></record></records></xml>