Risk Factors for HCV Relapse in HIV-Infected Patients

Although combination therapy with pegylated interferon and ribavirin clears hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection in some HIV-infected patients, many experience recurrent viremia or relapse after therapy is stopped. To determine the risk factors for relapse, investigators in Spain studied 256 HIV/HCV-coinfected patients who had undetectable HCV RNA at the end of pegylated interferon/ribavirin therapy.

Twenty-four percent of study participants — including 33% of those with genotype 1 HCV — suffered a relapse within 6 months of treatment completion. In a multivariate analysis, the only factors independently associated with increased risk for relapse were high pretreatment HCV RNA levels (≥500,000 IU/mL), detectable HCV RNA 4 weeks after therapy in…