The quality of life in hemodialysis patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection

Background/aims: We aimed to determine the quality of life in treated and untreated hemodialysis patients with chronic hepatitis C virus infection. Methods: Ninety-five chronic renal failure patients with positive antiHCV/HCV-RNA were enrolled in this prospective study. All patients were questioned using the Short Form-36 (SF-36) health survey to evaluate life quality after the treatment. Fifty-five (ALT>1.5 ULN) were treated with interferon-alpha-2b [3MU/tiw, sc, 6 (30 patients) and 12 (25 patients) months], and 40 (11 renal transplanted) were untreated. Fifteen patients had renal transplantation in a mean of 24.6 +/- 12.5 months after interferon-alpha treatment. Results: The mean age of the patients was 37 +/- 10 years, and 58 were male. The mean durations of hemodialysis and renal transplantation were 6.4 +/- 3.8 and 5.9 +/- 4.6 years, respectively. Interferon treatment had a negative effect on general health perception, physical activity and anxiety about the disease (p<0.05) when compared with the untreated patients. General health perception scores were positively slightly increased in interferon responder patients (p>0.05). General health and physical activity were better in transplanted patients than patients undergoing hemodialysis (p<0.05). Conclusions: General health perception slightly increased positively in interferon responder patients. However, general health perception and physical activity were affected negatively by interferon treatment in the whole group analysis. Renal-transplanted patients have a better life quality compared with those on hemodialysis.