Treatment of Chronic Viral Hepatitis with Pegylated Interferon in Ivory Coast

Background: In the Ivory Coast, chronic infection by hepatitis B and C virus is the leading cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. The absence of universal health coverage makes the treatment inaccessible to all. Objectives: To assess the efficacy of Pegylated Interferon in clinical practice in patients with chronic viral hepatitis B and C and determine the hematologic side effects. Patients and Methods: A descriptive retrospective study from January 2012 to November 2013 on a cohort of patients chronic carriers of hepatitis B virus (n = 11) treated with Pegylated Interferon to 180 mcg per week and hepatitis C virus (n = 30) treated with a combination therapy associating pegylated Interferon to 180 mcg per week and Ribavirin assayed according to the genotype. Results: Out of 1860 patients seen in hepatogastroenterology consultation 422 had viral hepatitis B or C that is a prevalence of 22.7% and 41 patients were treated (9.7%) by Pegylated Interferon. Among these 41 patients mentioned earlier, 30 had HCV (73.17%) with a case of HIV + HVC co-infection, 11 patients had HBV (26.83%) including 3 cases of HBV + HDV co-infection. Patients’ age ranged from 24 - 69 years with an average of 49.2 ± 12.2 years including 46.5 years for HBV and 51.9 years for HCV. The sex ratio was 1.56. The original transaminases were on average 93.37 IU/l for AST and 110.47 for ALT. The average RNA HCV was 1,685,331 IU/ml and the DNA HBV 33,312,767 IU/ml. Patients with HCV were of genotype 1 in 56.66%, genotype 2 in 40% and one case of genotype 4 (3.34%) from Central Africa. Fibrosis score at institution of treatment was significant (≥A2 and/or ≥F2) in 86.9% of cases of Fibrotest®, 100% of cases of Fibrometer®. We observed 48.8% of neutropenia < 750/mm3, 33.3% of anemia and 29.3% of thrombocytopenia < 100,000/mm3. There was no dose reduction of Pegylated Interferon and Ribavirin. For HBV there were 3 partial responses, 3 responders including 1 HBV + HDV co-infected non responder to HDV, 2 non responders including 1 HBV + HDV co-infected to Week 48. For HCV, there was 52.94% of cases of sustained viral response (SVR) including 44.44% of genotype 1, 83.33% of genotype 2 and 100% of genotype 4. Conclusion: The free antiviral treatment program helped treat 10% of chronic viral hepatitis B and C. Our results are not different from those of the literature. Difficulties remain in the performance of non supported diagnostic tests.

Upper Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in Children’s Abdominal Pains in Ivory Coast

Since a longtime considered as functional and psychological, children’s abdominal pains (CAP) is a public health problem. Advances in digestive endoscopy and Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) discovery have reignited the debate of the organicity of CAP. The aim of this study is to determine the diagnosis rentability of upper gastrointestinal endoscopy (UGIE) in CAP in Ivory Coast. Patients and Methods: This a retrospective analytical study based on reports of UGIE performed in 2 university hospital and 3 private clinics of Abidjan from march 2007 to march 2016. The children (from 1 day to 15 years) in which UGIE were performed for abdominal pains were included in the study. Results: 116 UGIE were performed in children for abdominal pains during the study period. Epigastric pain was the main indication of UGIE (88%). The diagnosis rentability of UGIE was more than 70% in this study. The main anomalies observed in UGIE were gastropathies. Ulcers were rarely found. Conclusion: UGIE play an important diagnosis role in CAP in Ivory Coast. However gastric biopsies for Helicobacter pylori research are not common practice in our country.

Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B with Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate in Ivory Coast

Little data exist on patients treated with tenofovir in Sub-Saharan Africa. Objective: To describe the clinical and laboratory characteristics of patients with viral hepatitis B treated with tenofovir. Material and methods: A descriptive single-center retrospective study, on chronic viral hepatitis B mono-infected, followed in the hepatogastroenterology department of the University Hospital of Yopougon and treated with tenofovir from February 2012 to February 2015. The studied parameters were demographic, clinical, biochemical, serological, virological, abdominal ultrasound. Liver fibrosis was assessed either by liver biopsy or non-invasive tests. Results: 110 patients were treated with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate with a mean age of 40.4 years and a male predominance. Clinical examination revealed jaundice in 9% of cases, hepatomegaly in 7.3% of cases, splenomegaly in 9.1% of cases and ascites in 15.5% of cases. The AST averaged 77.3 IU/l, the ALT 76.8 IU/l, prothrombin rate at 76.6% , albumin level at 32.3 g/l, total bilirubin at 29.9 g/l, alpha fetoprotein rate at 15.3 ng/ml. HBe antigen was negative in 76.2% of cases. The average rate of DNA at baseline was 7.4 log10 IU/l. 27.5% was cirrhotic. The average time of starting treatment was 23.7 months. Conclusion: TDF is the first-line treatment for chronic hepatitis B in our country, because it is a well-tolerated, potent therapy with a high threshold for resistance development. Our study population had an average age of 40.4 years. Virological profile was dominated by HBe antigen negative patients and high viral load of HVB DNA. One third of patients were at the stage of cirrhosis. This treatment must be delivered free of charge in all the country hospitals, which is going to improve significantly the natural evolution of the disease and to decrease the incidence of the HCC.

Diagnostic accuracy of biochemical markers of fibrosis in black African patients with chronic hepatitis B

Contradictory results of the accuracy of bio-chemical markers to predict the stage of fibrosis in black African patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) were previously published. We con-ducted a prospective cohort study to determine the diagnostic accuracy of aspartate ami-notransferase to platelet ratio (APRI), aspartate aminotransferase to alanine aminotransferase ratio (AAR), platelet count, age-platelet (AP) in-dex, and FIB-4 index for the prediction of sig-nificant fibrosis or cirrhosis in 117 black African patients (median age: 38 years, males: 73 %) with CHB not previously treated. Among them, 45 had significant fibrosis and 18 had cirrhosis using the METAVIR score system. Factors as-sociated either with significant fibrosis or cir-rhosis were determined in logistic multivariate analysis. Areas under receiver operating curve were assessed and compared for APRI, AAR, AP index, FIB-4 index and platelet count. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were determined for each biochemical markers. Multivariate analysis showed that as-partate aminotransferase (p 1.1) and FIB-4 index (cut-off > 2.1) ruled out significant fibrosis with high specific-ity of 84.7 % and 86.1 % respectively and nega-tive predictive values of 78.2 % and 72.9 % re-spectively. More accurately, APRI (cut-off > 0.63) or FIB-4 index (cut-off > 1.26) ruled out cirrhosis with high sensitivity of 94.4% and 88.9% and high negative predictive values of 98.1% and 96.3% respectively. In conclusion, APRI and FIB-4 index are simple readily available markers to exclude significant fibrosis or more accu-rately cirrhosis in black African patients with CHB.