PMID: 8583982Dec 15, 1995Paper

Cryoglobulinemia in chronic hepatitis C. Improvement by alpha-interferon is independent of virus elimination

Medizinische Klinik
T GlückJ G Saal

Abstract

During the last few years, the association of mixed cryoglobulinemia with chronic viral infections has gained increasing interest. Chronic hepatitis C seems to play a major role. As alpha-interferon is an established therapy for chronic hepatitis C, it was also tried successfully in cryoglobulinemia type II, associated with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. The course of 3 patients with cryoglobulinemia type II and chronic hepatitis C is presented. Two patients received immunosuppressive therapy prior to alpha-interferon without success. In all cases, remission or improvement of the cryoglobulinemia was noticed with alpha-interferon, but none of the patients cleared the hepatitis C virus. Although the treatment was well tolerated, two patients developed neurologic resp. psychiatric side effects, probably due to alpha-interferon. From our results and from data reported previously, immunomodulating treatment with alpha-interferon can be recommended for therapy of virus-associated cryoglobulinemia rather than the "classical" treatment with immunosuppressive agents. The specific side effects of alpha-interferon have to be monitored carefully.

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