Efficacy of Atorvastatin Plus Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin Versus Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin Alone in Chronic Hepatitis C Patients with Genotype-3a

Chronic hepatitis C infection has created a huge burden of disease causing serious healtheffects. The combination therapy used to treat hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection includes Pegylatedinterferon and Ribavirin. As cholesterol biosynthesis plays a pivotal role in HCV replication, the use ofvarious statins has been associated with higher sustained viral response Objective: To compare theefficacy of atorvastatin plus pegylated interferon and ribavirin versus pegylated interferon and ribavirinalone in patients of chronic hepatitis C with genotype-3a Methods: This Randomized controlled trial wasconducted at outpatient department, Mayo Hospital Lahore for six months i.e. May to November 2017.After ethical approval, 60 patients of ages 25 to 55 years of either gender with chronic hepatitis C withgenotype 3a were included in the study. Informed consent was taken from all patients. Then patients wererandomly allocated into two groups “A” and “B” using random number table. Patients in Group A receivedstandard of care treatment for chronic hepatitis C i.e. pegylated interferon and ribavirin while the patientsin Group B also received tab atorvastatin along with the standard treatment. Patients were follow up for 4week. Blood samples were collected and HCV RNA detection. All this information were entered inproforma Results: In standard therapy group, the mean age of patients was 39.50±8.39years. Inatorvastatin plus standard therapy group, the mean age of patients was 34.30±6.78years. In standardtherapy group, there were 25 (83.3%) males and 5 (16.7%) females. In atorvastatin plus standard therapygroup, there were 16 (53.3%) males and 14 (46.7%) females. After 4 weeks, Rapid Virological Response(RVR) was achieved in 4 (13.3%) patients in standard therapy group while in 14 (46.7%) in atorvastatin plusstandard therapy group. The difference was significant (p<0.05) Conclusions: Atorvastatin incombination with Pegylated interferon and ribavirin have better efficacy as compared to Pegylatedinterferon & ribavirin alone in chronic hepatitis C-3a.