Background: It has been reported that liver function alterations occur in 8–38% of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) treated with interferon-beta in controlled clinical trials or in prospective but non-controlled studies. We report herein a case of symptomatic liver dysfunction associated with two-year-period of regular interferon-beta-1a (Avonex®) intramuscular inje...

Reactive oxygen intermediates (e.g., superoxide [O2-]) generated by microglia may play a role in host defense and injury within the central nervous system. We investigated the effect of cytokines on human microglial cell O2- production on stimulation with phorbol myristate acetate. Priming of microglial cell cultures with interferon-gamma or tumor necrosis factor-alpha resulted in a dose- and t...

BACKGROUND Early and more recent systematic reviews of placebo controlled trials disagree about the relative efficacy of the commercially available INF-ß treatments in studies of adults with RRMS. A limitation of these reviews is that they have derived their findings almost entirely from the pivotal trials and placebo controlled studies. OBJECTIVE To provide the first meta-analytic study of h...

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with inherited bleeding disorders. The results of interferon and ribavirin combination therapy have been reported in a limited number of clinical trials on these patients. Peginterferon is a costly treatment. Conventional interferon and ribavirin therapy is still the main available and affordable antiviral...

BACKGROUND Only 15 to 20 percent of patients with chronic hepatitis C have a sustained virologic response to interferon therapy. We compared the efficacy and safety of recombinant interferon alfa-2b alone with those of a combination of interferon alfa-2b and ribavirin for the initial treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C. METHODS We randomly assigned 912 patients with chronic hepatit...

A multicenter, open-label, phase 3 study was conducted in 337 patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection who had either not responded to previous interferon therapy or had relapsed after discontinuation of therapy with either consensus interferon (9 microg) or interferon alpha-2b (3 million U) three times a week for 24 weeks. Patients were randomized to receive a higher dose of con...

AIM Subcutaneous (s.c.) peginterferon beta-1a injected once every 2 weeks and s.c. interferon beta-1a injected three times per week (Rebif®) have demonstrated efficacy in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis, but direct comparisons of pharmacological activity and tolerability between the two products are lacking. COMPARE was an open label, crossover, pharmacokinetic (PK) study evaluating drug...

There are few reports concerning interferon induced myocardial dysfunction. A known case of multiple myeloma who was receiving interferon alpha (IFA) for 14 months was brought to the emergency room in frank: pulmonary edema. After treatment of heart failure and discontinuation of interferon alpha, he remained asymptomatic thereafter. Another case of chronic active hepatitis on IFA complain...

multiple sclerosis (ms) is an inflammatory disorder, in which neurons in central nervous system (cns) become demyelinated .ms is named for its formation of plaques due to sclerosis of myelin. variable degree of demyelination results in mild, mediate or severe symptomatic episodes of this disease. it is commonly characterized by recurrent relapses and often followed by severe neurological disabi...