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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Oct 14, 2015; 21(38): 10749-10759
Published online Oct 14, 2015. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v21.i38.10749
Hepatitis C virus markers in infection by hepatitis C virus: In the era of directly acting antivirals
Nicola Coppola, Mariantonietta Pisaturo, Rosa Zampino, Margherita Macera, Caterina Sagnelli, Evangelista Sagnelli
Nicola Coppola, Mariantonietta Pisaturo, Margherita Macera, Evangelista Sagnelli, Department of Mental Health and Public Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Second University of Naples, 80131 Naples, Italy
Mariantonietta Pisaturo, Division of Infectious Diseases, AORN Sant’Anna e San Sebastiano di Caserta, 81100 Caserta, Italy
Rosa Zampino, Internal Medicine and Hepatology, Second University of Naples, 80131 Naples, Italy
Caterina Sagnelli, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine and Surgery “F. Magrassi e A. Lanzara”, Second University of Naples, 80131 Naples, Italy
Author contributions: All authors substantial contributed to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; Coppola N contributed to drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; Pisaturo M analysis of “HCV markers in Diagnosis of chronic HCV infection and in Assessment of the severity of chronic hepatitis C”; Zampino R analysis of “HCV-RNA kinetics and clearance as markers of remission”; Macera M analysis of “Assessment of factors associated with the response to anti-viral treatment”; Sagnelli C analysis of “HCV markers in acute hepatitis C”; Sagnelli E contributed to drafting the article and revising it critically for important intellectual content; and all authors approved the final version to be published.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors of the manuscript declare that they have no conflict of interest in connection with this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Nicola Coppola, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases, Department of Mental Health and Public Medicine, Section of Infectious Diseases, Second University of Naples, Via L. Armanni 5, 80131 Naples, Italy. nicola.coppola@unina2.it
Telephone: +39-815-666719 Fax: +39-815-666013
Received: April 26, 2015
Peer-review started: April 28, 2015
First decision: June 2, 2015
Revised: July 4, 2015
Accepted: September 2, 2015
Article in press: September 2, 2015
Published online: October 14, 2015
Core Tip

Core tip: The second and third wave directly acting antivirals introduced in 2013-2014 enhanced the efficacy and tolerability of anti-hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment. Consequently, the traditional indicators for disease management and predictors of treatment response should be revised in light of these new therapeutic options. This review article analyzes the modern use of the markers of HCV infection in: (1) the diagnosis of acute hepatitis C; (2) the diagnosis of chronic HCV infection; (3) the assessment of the severity of chronic hepatitis C; (4) the assessment of factors associated with response to anti-viral treatment; and (5) HCV-RNA kinetics and clearance as markers of remission.