What R the indications of using interferon alpha in case of viral hepatitis?

Not sure for what kind of indication information you are looking for but i hope this helps.



Chronic Hepatitis B: Hepatitis B infection, acquired through contact with blood or other body fluids from a person carrying the hepatitis B virus (HBV), is prevalent at rates that vary worldwide. The severity of the overt acute clinical attack varies and appears to be inversely related to subsequent development of the chronic carrier stage, which is defined as the persistence of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) beyond 6 months from the onset of infection. In patients with chronic active hepatitis (CAH) disease progression is observed in 20 to 70% over a 2-year to 7-year period with an estimated mortality of 25 to 50%. The high proportion of chronic carriers of HBV who give no history of an acute hepatitis attack indicates that subclinical episodes are frequent.

The effect of interferon alpha-n1 (Ins) regimens of 3 months or more on the serological, biochemical and histological manifestations of the disease have been clearly demonstrated. A treated patient is more than 3 times as likely to be clear of HBeAg at 1 year. In excess of around one third of patients treated with interferon alpha-n1 (Ins) clear HBeAg at 1 year. This will be accompanied by biochemical and histological remission.

Recent experience with interferon for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B suggests that interferon alpha-n1 (Ins) has shown a significant increase in the HBeAg seroconversion rate using prednisolone pretreatment.

Chronic Hepatitis C: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a common cause of acute and chronic hepatitis, both post-transfusional and sporadic. HCV infection has a high tendency to chronicity. In 40 to 50% of patients with post-transfusion hepatitis, the infection becomes chronic, and in 20% of these cases the disease progresses to cirrhosis. There is also a high proportion of HCV-related cases of hepatocellular carcinoma. At all stages of the disease, ALT levels are characteristically elevated above the normal range, consistent with hepatocyte damage, and usually fluctuate. Insidious evolution of chronic hepatitis C to cirrhosis is emerging as a consistent observation, even though patients may be asymptomatic and have only marginal elevations of aminotransferase levels.

Clinical experience shows that interferon alpha-n1 (lns) therapy can result in an ALT response at the end of treatment in up to 50% of patients. Approximately half of these patients will maintain a sustained ALT response, post-treatment.

Almost 50% of HCV infected patients treated with interferon alpha-n1 (lns) show sustained improvement in liver inflammation on histological examination.

Interferon alpha-n1 (lns) is indicated for the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C (NonA NonB) infection. Efficacy has been established on the basis of normalization of serum aminotransferases, clearance of serum HCV RNA and by improvements in liver histology

i assume you're asking about hepatitis B/D or C, in which case your question is partly answered. other hepatitis viruses may not need interferon.