Exploring the Impact of 12-week Direct Acting Antiviral Therapy on Laboratory Parameters in HCV Patients: A Comparative Study

Objective: The present study was designed to understand the hematological and chemical aspects of the patients undergoing 12-week DAA treatment therapy Study Design: A prospective study Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted at the Department of Urology & Dialysis, District Headquarter Hospital Jhelum, from December 2022 to November 2023. Methods: For clinical chemistry evaluation, serum creatinine, total bilirubin, aspartate transaminase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) was tested on Cobas c701 (Roche®). For hematological evaluation, complete blood count (CBC) was done using an automated hematology analyzer (Sysmex KX-21, Japan). Results: In this study, 380 HCV patients, including 253 male (66.5%) and 127 females (33.4%), are evaluated for the impact of Direct-Acting Antiviral (DAA) treatment. The hemoglobin (HGB) levels of males were found to start at 14.51±1.21g/dL and those of females at 12.22±1.38g/dL, according to the hematological analysis. There were 234.21±53.26x10^6/µL of platelets in the males and 218.53±42.17x10^6/µL in the females. With a decrease from 41.72±3.47% to 36.41±1.95% for males and from 39.18±2.62% to 35.74±1.67% for females, hematocrit (HCT) levels were seen in HCV patients. The concentration and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) varied significantly across the HCV patients. Reduced levels of ALT (from 50.2±8.4 IU/L to 22.35.1 IU/L) and AST (from 42.5±6.3 IU/L to 19.6±4.9 IU/L) were indicative of beneficial effects on liver function, according to hepatic parameters. HCV patients (male & females) showed improvement in renal indicators, including urea and creatinine levels. Conclusion: The study provides a comprehensive understanding of the demographic, laboratory parameters and physiological intricacies associated with DAA therapy. The study also identified gender-based variations underscore the inevitability for initialed approaches in DAA treatment.