Hepatitis C, table 1, Neurovisual Impairment: A Frequent Complication of Alpha-Interferon Treatment in Chronic Viral Hepatitis

table 1

Neurovisual Impairment: A Frequent Complication of Alpha-Interferon Treatment in Chronic Viral Hepatitis

table 1. Clinical and Laboratory Characteristics of Patients Studied

Parameter	Patients (n = 53)

Sex (% males)	27 (50.9%)
Age (yrs)^*	52.5 ± 14.4 (55, 16-74)
Type of viral hepatitis
HBV-positive (n, %)	22 (41.5%)
HCV-positive (n, %)	31 (58.5%)
Presence of cirrhosis (n, %)	24 (45.3%)
Child-Pugh score	5 (5-12)
Baseline diabetes (n, %)	4 (7.5%)
Baseline hypertension (n, %)	13 (24.5%)
Baseline serum cholesterol 240 mg% (n, %)	3 (5.7%)
Baseline total cholesterol/HDL ratio >5 (n, %)	9 (17.0%)
Baseline AST (IU/ml)^*	95 ± 88 (74.5, 17-555)
Interferon-a2b dose per injection (MU)^*^,^§	3.2 ± 0.7 (3, 1.2-5)
Cumulative interferon dose (MU)^*^,#	386 ± 150 (392, 96-762)
Total interferon treatment time (months)^*^,#	10.2 ± 3.4 (11, 1.8-18.3)

^* Mean ± SD, (median, range). Median (range). Four additional patients (7.5%) had positive oral glucose tolerance test. ^§ Administered thrice weekly. #Up to the second ophthalmological evaluation.