HCV/HIV Patients May Need More Aggressive Care, Study Suggests
by John C. Martin
Article Date: 03-23-05

Under current standards of care, doctors can postpone treatment for
patients infected with hepatitis C who show minimal liver damage on
their first biopsy, as well as normal liver enzymes.

However, a new study by a group of doctors at Johns Hopkins University
in Baltimore suggests that patients coinfected with hepatitis C (HCV)
and HIV may need to consider more aggressive care. The scientists led by
Mark Sulkowski, MD, an assistant professor of Medicine at Hopkins found
that within 3-and-a-half years of diagnosis, 28 percent of 67 patients
with minimal damage initially had developed significant fibrosis.  
[...]
"If confirmed by others, these data do not support the application of
current HCV treatment guidelines to HIV-infected patients on the basis
of a single liver biopsy, and suggest that such patients should be
closely monitored for liver disease progression," wrote Sulkowski and
his fellow researchers. "Additional research is urgently needed to
identify better predictors of liver disease stage and progression in
co-infected patients."
[...]

Full text at
http://www.hepatitisneighborhood.com/content/in_the_news/archive_2288.aspx
Thomas