الفهرس 
Aim of the workOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Summary
The aim of the present study was to assess the serum level of prohepcidin in patients with chronic hepatitis C before initiation of pegylated interferon/ ribavirin (peg INF/RBV) therapy and to evaluate its impact on early virologic response in those patients.
The current study was conducted on 70 patients with chronic HCV infection who were selected from Tanta Fever Hospital, Hepatology Unit, in addition to 20 healthy volunteers of age- and sex-matched with patients as a control group.
All patients were subjected to CBC, blood sugar tests, liver profile tests, renal function tests, HCV antibody, HBs antigen, schistosomal antibody titer, TSH, ANA, serum alpha-fetoprotein, serum iron indices, pregnancy test in female patients, quantitative HCV-RNA-PCR before treatment and at 12 weeks of therapy, serum level of prohepcidin using ELISA, abdominal- ultrasound and Liver biopsy with histopathological examination.
The prohepcidin showed non-significant increase in patients than controls and also TIBC, while, the serum ferritin and serum iron showed non-significant increase in controls than patients group.
At the same time, there was no significant correlation between basal prohepcidin levels and iron indices,
Although the prohepcidin didn’t show significant correlation with histopathological grades of liver biopsy, there was progressive decrease in serum prohepcidin level with increase in hepatic steatosis, activity grade and stage of fibrosis.
There was significant correlation between the serum iron and both fibrosis stage and activity grade and also between the serum ferritin and necroinflamatory grade. Otherwise, there was no significant correlation between iron indices and histopathological grades of liver biopsy.
The prohepcidin showed non significant decrease in early responders than early non responders and it could predict EVR at cutoff value > 178.88 ng/ml with 53.8 % sensitivity and 69.1 % specificity.
At the same time the early responders had non significant decrease in serum iron, serum ferritin, viral load, total bilirubin and platelets count than early non responders.
Conclusion
• The serum prohepcidin levels were non-significantly higher in CHC patients than in healthy controls.
• There was increase in the stage of hepatic fibrosis (by liver biopsy) when serum prohepcidin level decreased (negative correlation).
• There was no significant correlation between serum prohepcidin level and the hepatic necroinflamatory grade.
• The serum ferritin and serum iron were non-significantly lower in patients than controls.
• The serum iron showed significant positive correlation with the degree of hepatic necroinflammatory activity, and hepatic fibrosis stage.
• In early responders, there was non-significant decrease in serum prohepcidin, serum iron and serum ferritin than early non-responders.
• There was a negative correlation between EVR and each of viral load, platelets count and total bilirubin.
• Serum prohepcidin could predict EVR at cutoff value > 178.88 ng/ml with 53.8 % sensitivity and 69.2 % specificity.