Impact of Insulin Resistance on Therapeutic Response to Oral Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Infection

Background& aim: HCV infection is one of the major health problems in our country. Prevalence of DM is higher among patients with chronic HCV infection. Insulin resistance (IR) is common in such and its impact on sustained virological response (SVR) is not well studied. This work was designed to assess impact of IR on SVR. Patients & methods: Between July 2016 and June 2017; 200 patients with chronic HCV infection were enrolled in a prospective study. Exclusion criteria included decompensated cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma or extrahepatic malignancy, co-infection with HBV or HIV infection. HOMA and IR were assessed at baseline of therapy and 3-months post-therapy.   Patients received sofosbuvir and daclatasvir for 3 months (chronic hepatitis) and for 6 months in (liver cirrhosis). Results: Mean age of patients was 49.89 ± 9.01 years, 111 (55.5%) patients were male and 180 (90%) achieved SVR. Baseline IR had insignificant difference between responders and non-responders (93% v. 90%; P = 0.45), while baseline HOMA was significantly higher in non-responders (10.11 ± 3.03 vs. 8.48 ± 2.98; P = 0.01). Also, post-therapy IR had insignificant difference between both groups (73.3% vs. 85%; P = 0.05), while post-therapy HOMA was significantly higher in non-responders (7.12 ± 2.31 vs. 5.06 ± 1.34; P = 0.01). Predictors of non-responders were age (> 40 years), low serum albumin and post-therapy IR. Conclusion: Baseline IR had no impact on SVR but it showed significant improvement in presence of SVR.