Impact of Hepatitis C Virus Eradication Following Direct Acting Antivirals on Liver Stiffness Measuremen

Abstract

epatitis C infection is a disease with significant global impact, about 130-150 million people chronically infected with the hepatitis C virus (HCV), representing about 2-2.5% of the world’s population. In Egypt, the prevalence is 10% and according to the last DHS in 2015 it was 7%. The prognosis and management of chronic liver diseases greatly depend on the amount and progression of liver fibrosis with the risk of developing cirrhosis. Liver biopsy, traditionally considered as the reference standard for the staging of fibrosis, has been challenged over the past decade by the development of novel noninvasive methodologies. Elastography has been used to evaluate liver stiffness for more than 10 y. As chronic liver damage results in hepatic fibrosis, characterized by an increase of extracellular matrix produced by fibroblast-like cells, the liver becomes stiffer than normal. Elastography can be used to assess liver stiffness non-invasively. Transient elastography is a 1-D technique performed with the FibroScan system (Echosens, Paris, France) New DAAs drugs have been introduced over the past few years and a combination of two of these drugs; namely sofosbuvir and daclatasvir, are widely used in Egypt nowadays. This study was conducted in co-operation between Gastroenterology and Hepatology Department, Ain-Shams