الفهرس 
Hepatitis C VirusOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: Neopterin is a more sensitive marker for severity of liver disease than established markers of inflammation, its concentration usually correlate with the extent and activity of the disease, and are also useful to monitor during therapy in these patients. Aim of the Work: Correlation between serum levels of neopterin as a systemic inflammatory marker and the response to treatment with interferon and ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Patients and Methods: The current study had Egyptian patients with chronic hepatitis C who were chosen for HCV antiviral treatment by interferon and ribavirin for 48 weeks and 20 normal person as control, attending to the hepatolgy and virology treatment center of Damanhour Medical National Institute in the period from 2/1/2014 to 27/3/2014. Results: The cutoff value between Early virological Responder and Null responder;the values <=15.8nmol/L will be for Early virological Responder with sensitivity 60%, specificity 85%, NPV (negative predictive value) =68%, PPV (positive predictive value) = 80% and by accuracy 75%. Conclusion: Serum neopterin level was significantly elevated in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus compared to healthy control individuals. Recommendations: Neopterin is a good predictor for response to pegINF and ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C. We recommend that the pretreatment level of neopterin might be used in routine clinical practice as a rapid and cost-effective marker to predict the response to antiviral therapy in HCV patients.