Performance of Disease-Specific Scoring Models in Intensive Care Patients with Severe Liver Diseases.

Introduction: Egypt has the highest prevalence of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in the world, estimated nationally at 14.7%. HCV treatment consumes 20% ($80 million) of Egypt's annual health budget.

ROLE OF T REGULATORY CELLS IN CHRONIC HCV INFECTED EGYPTIAN PATIENTS AND THEIR IMPACT ON THE RESPONSE TO PEGYLATED INTERFERON THERAPY.

Treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C with the current standard pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) and ribavirin achieves overall response (SVR) rates of ~55%. A role of CD4+ CD25+ regulatory T cells (Treg cells) has been proposed as they can suppress HCV-specific T cells in HCV-infected patients. Patients with chronic HCV legible for PEG-IFN plus ribavirin treatment, were classified according to their response to treatment into two groups (responders and non-responders, 32 and 27 patients respectively).