Figure 2

65 patients with viral persistence for more than six months antiviral therapy was considered. Seventeen patients were excluded from antiviral therapy due to contraindications, i.e. repeatable normal ALT values, severe psychiatric disorders, or persistent drug abuse. Forty-eight patients were treated with interferon-α and ribavirin for at least six months. Overall, 21 patients (48.3%) had at least one negative RT-PCR for HCV-RNA, while 27 patients (56.2%) did not show a virological response. Among the patients who responded to the therapy 76.2% had no detectable NOSA, while 23.8% were positive for NOSA. Absence of NOSA was statistically associated with a favourable treatment response (OR 4.65, 95% CI 1.31 to 16.48, Fisher's exact test) in univariate and multivariate analysis. ALT, alanine aminotranferase; NOSA, non-organ-specific autoantibodies; RT-PCR, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction; OR, odds ratio; CI, contraindications.