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The risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) events appears to be lower in hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection patients receiving direct-acting antiviral (DAA) regimens compared with those receiving older pegylated interferon-based therapy or no treatment at all, according to a study presented at the Liver Meeting 2018.
ERCHIVES (Electronically Retrieved Cohort of HCV Infected Veterans) was utilized to identify all patients who received HCV treatment for at least 7 weeks as well as a propensity-score matched group who did not receive treatment. Each group included 32,575 patients. Patients with HIV, HBV, or previously diagnosed CVD were excluded from the study. Both the incidence rate (per 1000 person-years) as well as risk factors for CVD events were assessed.
“The incidence rate for CVD events/1,000 person-years (95% CI) among the treated was 19.10 (17.79, 20.50) vs. 32.37 (30.51, 34.33) among the untreated (P<.01),” the study authors reported. Results of the study also found that patients receiving DAA therapy had a lower risk of incident CVD events compared with those receiving pegylated interferon/ribavirin (HR: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.53, 0.88). Additionally, patients who achieved sustained virologic response (SVR) also had a lower risk of incident CVD events (HR: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.92). “Kaplan-Meier curves demonstrated that untreated persons had a shorter CVD event-free survival during 30 months of follow-up compared with the treated persons,” the study authors added.
Results of this study determined that the likelihood of incident CVD events was not only reduced in HCV patients treated with DAA therapy, but also for patients who attained SVR.
Reference:
Butt AA. Risk of Cardiovascular Disease Events after HCV Treatment: Results from Erchives. Presented at AASLD The Liver Meeting 2018. Study number 1566.
This article originally appeared on MPR
