Factors associated with early virological response to peginterferon-α-2a/ribavirin in chronic hepatitis C

Figure 1 Independent factors associated with an early virologic response according to multiple logistic regression analysis. Baseline demographic factors used in the multiple regression analysis included age (≤ 40 years vs > 40 years), gender, race, educational level, marital status and family status. Clinical baseline factors included in the multiple regression analysis were weight, alcohol and tobacco consumption, source of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase and gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) levels (≤ 85 vs > 85), serum ferritin, serum HCV-RNA concentration (< 400 000 vs≥ 400 000), genotype (1/4 vs 3/4), cirrhotic status and ribavirin dose (800/1000/1200 mg/d). An odds ratio equal to 1 (dashed lines) indicates no difference between the subgroups defined according to the given factors. Bars indicate 95%CI. The results demonstrated that age ≤ 40 years (P < 0.01), low levels of GGT (≤ 85 IU/L) (P < 0.001), low ferritin (P < 0.01) and genotype 1/4 (P < 0.001) were independent predictors of early virological response.