Relationship between Patient Profile and Feverishness Developed during Interferon-Ribavirin Combination Therapy of Chronic Hepatitis C Patients

Abstract

  To investigate the relation between tendency of feverishness and patient profile in pegylated interferon (peginterferon) and ribavirin combination therapy, we performed a retrospective survey of the medical charts of patients with chronic hepatitis C that have been on interferon therapy for the past two years. The sample was 36 patients (18 males, 18 females, aged 30 to 67 years, average of 57.5 years) who were hospitalized for the introduction of peginterferon-alpha 2b and ribavirin combination therapy and did not use NSAIDs before the administration of interferon. We examined body temperature and laboratory values (AST, ALT, WBC, Hb, PLT, BUN, Cr, HCV RNA level, and HCV genotype) for one week from the initiation of peginterferon administration to one week after the administration. Tendency of feverishness was classified into two groups according to the time to reach maximum body temperature. The early fever-developing group reached maximum body temperature within 12 hours of the administration, and the slow fever-developing group reached maximum body temperature after 12 hours post administration. The early fever-developing group had a significantly higher maximum body temperature (early group, 38.5°C±0.55; slow group, 37.8°C±0.55), more persistent fever (early group, 71.0 h±31.3; slow group, 36.5 h±41.8), and a higher percentage of females (early group, 80.0%; slow group, 28.6%). Moreover, females and elderly patients developed significantly higher fever (temperature difference 0.78°C) early (8.5 h) after peginterferon administration. These results indicate the need for careful observation of females and elderly patients in the early stage of an initial treatment of chronic hepatitis C with peginterferon.