• Cristina Stasi, Alessia Piluso, Umberto Arena, Elena Salomoni, Paolo Montalto, Monica Monti, Barbara Boldrini, Giampaolo Corti, Fabio Marra, Giacomo Laffi, Stefano Milani, and Anna Linda Zignego.
• Cristina Stasi, Alessia Piluso, Umberto Arena, Elena Salomoni, Monica Monti, Barbara Boldrini, Giampaolo Corti, Fabio Marra, Giacomo Laffi, Anna Linda Zignego, Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy.
• World J. Gastroenterol. 2015 Mar 14; 21 (10): 3013-9.

AimTo evaluate the association between liver stiffness (LS) prior to the initiation of dual/triple therapy and viral response.MethodsLS was measured in all patients before treatment was administered. The therapeutic approach was based on hepatic, virological, and immunological evaluations and considered the fact that patients with severe fibrosis (F3) or compensated cirrhosis (F4) in Child-Pugh class A are the primary candidates for triple therapy. In total, 65 hepatitis C virus (HCV) patients were treated with Peg-interferon/ribavirin (Peg-IFN/RBV); 24 patients were classified as genotypes 1/4 (36.92%), and 41 patients were classified as genotypes 2/3 (63.08%) (dual therapy). In addition, 20 HCV treatment-experienced genotype 1 patients were treated with PegIFN-RBV and boceprevir (triple therapy). Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to compare the groups.ResultsLS significantly differed between dual therapy and triple therapy (P = 0.002). The mean LS value before dual therapy treatment was 8.61 ± 5.79 kPa and was significantly different between patients achieving a sustained virologic response (SVR) 24 weeks after therapy and those who did not (7.23 ± 5.18 kPa vs 11.72 ± 5.99 kPa, respectively, P = 0.0003). The relative risk of non-response to therapy was 4.45 (95%CI: 2.32-8.55). The attributable risk of non-response to therapy was 49%. The mean LS value before triple therapy treatment was 13.29 ± 8.57 kPa and was significantly different between patients achieving and not achieving SVR24 (9.41 ± 5.05 vs 19.11 ± 9.74, respectively; P = 0.008). The relative risk of non-response to therapy was 5.57% (95%CI: 1.50-20.65). The attributable risk of non-response to therapy (70%) was increased compared with dual therapy patients. Pre-treatment stiffness > 12 kPa was significantly associated with non-SVR (P < 0.025) in both groups.ConclusionPre-treatment liver stiffness may be useful for predicting the response to treatment in patients treated with either dual or triple anti-HCV therapy.

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