Skip to main content

Table 1 Summary of inclusion and exclusion criteria applied in the literature review

From: Achieving sustained virologic response in hepatitis C: a systematic review of the clinical, economic and quality of life benefits

Inclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria

All studies

All studies

Published 2003–2014

Conducted exclusively in HIV co-infected patients

Published in English

Conducted exclusively in pediatric patients

Conducted in patients with chronic HCV

Wrong publication type: letters, case studies, editorials and commentaries were excluded

 

Conducted exclusively in patients with genotypes 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6

Clinical studies

Clinical studies

Minimum 1 year post-treatment follow-up

<100 patients

Report hard clinical endpoints (e.g. overall mortality, incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma)

Endpoints limited to biochemical parameters only (e.g. aminotransferase levels only)

Health economic studies

Health economic studies

Assessing cost-effectiveness of protease inhibitors versus pegIFN plus ribavirin, pegIFN, IFN or no treatment

Assessing pegIFN plus ribavirin versus pegIFN, IFN or no treatment

Quality of life studies

Quality of life studies

Presentation of quantitative results using a validated quality of life instrument

 
  1. HCV, hepatitis C virus; HIV; human immunodeficiency virus; pegIFN, pegylated interferon; IFN, interferon.