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©2007 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 28, 2007; 13(32): 4394-4397
Published online Aug 28, 2007. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i32.4394
Published online Aug 28, 2007. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v13.i32.4394
Fulminant hepatic failure in a case of autoimmune hepatitis in hepatitis C during peg-interferon-alpha 2b plus ribavirin treatment
Takayuki Kogure, Yoshiyuki Ueno, Koji Fukushima, Futoshi Nagasaki, Jun Inoue, Eiji Kakazu, Yasunori Matsuda, Osamu Kido, Yu Nakagome, Osamu Kimura, Noriyuki Obara, Yuta Wakui, Takao Iwasaki, Tooru Shimosegawa, Division of Gastroenterology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo, Aobaku, Sendai City 980-8574, Japan
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the work.
Correspondence to: Yoshiyuki Ueno, MD, PhD, Division of Gastroenterology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, 1-1 Seiryo, Aoba, Sendai City 980-8574, Japan. yueno@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-22-7177171 Fax: +81-22-7177177
Received: May 8, 2007
Revised: May 10, 2007
Accepted: May 12, 2007
Published online: August 28, 2007
Revised: May 10, 2007
Accepted: May 12, 2007
Published online: August 28, 2007
Abstract
A 27-year-old Caucasian female with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection treated with interferon (IFN) who developed severe autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is described. The infecting viral strain was of genotype Ib and the pre-treatment HCV viral load was at a high level. The patient was treated with pegylated IFN-alpha 2b and ribavirin, and her HCV-RNA became negative at wk 12, but after that she developed fulminant hepatic failure. The patient recovered after steroid pulse therapy consisting of methylprednisolone 1000 mg/d for three days which was administered twice. A needle liver biopsy revealed the typical pathological findings of AIH.
Keywords: Autoimmune hepatitis, Interferon, Ribavirin, Hepatitis C virus, Anti-viral therapyA, Acute liver failure