Twice-a-day versus once-a-day interferon-beta therapy in chronic hepatitis C.

Background/aims: The intravenous administration of interferon-beta may be effective for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C, as is intramuscular interferon-beta. We compared the efficacy and safety of twice-a-day versus once-a-day of natural interferon-beta for the initial treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Methodology: Forty-nine patients with chronic hepatitis C, with less than 5 Meq/mL serum hepatitis C virus-RNA, were randomly assigned into one of the two treatment groups A and B and treated with natural interferon-beta following two different protocols.