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Challenging clinical cases in HCV infection

2014; BioMed Central; Volume: 14; Issue: S5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1186/1471-2334-14-s5-s7

1471-2334

Alessio Strazzulla, Giovanni Matera, Selma Valerie Mammone, Vittoria Vaccaro, Vincenzo Pisani, Chiara Costa, Francesco Manti, Patrizia Doldo, Lucio Cosco, Francesco Quintieri, Alfredo Cesario, Maria Carla Liberto, Aldo Giancotti, Carlo Torti, Alfredo Focà,

Polyomavirus and related diseases

We present clinical cases, which underline some difficulties in diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Case report #1 shows a patient who avoided clinical follow-up for HCV until the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. In this patient, non-invasive procedures did not allow to make a differential diagnosis between hydatidosis and hepatocellular carcinoma but diagnosis was only made with liver biopsy. In the case report #2, 24-week treatment with peg-interferon α2 and ribavirin was successfully administered to a HCV genotype-1b infected patient. Shortening HCV treatment did not impair sustained virological response, probably because HCV RNA was low (< 200,000 IU/l) at baseline. Lastly, a case series of patients (#3-6) with hemoglobinopathies is described. Sustained virological response after peg-interferon α2 and ribavirin was achieved in 2 out of 4 patients. While no severe treatment limiting hematological effects were encountered, patients needed more frequent blood transfusions. Thus, new anti-HCV schemes without peg-interferon and ribavirin are urgently needed.