Interferon-free regimens improve kidney function in patients with chronic hepatitis C infection

The impact of directly acting antiviral agent (DAA) regimens on renal function is not well defined and quite controversial. We evaluated the effect of DAAs on kidney function and the factors associated with an improvement or worsening.

The changes in estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) in a cohort of 403 patients treated with a DAA regimen were evaluated.

The overall sustained virological response (SVR12) rate was 98%. The median eGFR progressively increased throughout treatment from 84.54 ml/min/1.73 m² (IQR 70.8–97.3) to 88.12 ml/min/1.73 m². Conversely, rates of patients with a eGFR more than 60 ml/min/1.73 m² progressively increased from 83.1% at baseline to 87.8% at 12 weeks post-treatment (p < 0.05). Considering the change in eGFR according to the different factors, a significant improvement in eGFR was observed in the patients without diabetes (p < 0.001), in those with cirrhosis (p < 0.05), in those receiving a Sof-based regimen (p < 0.01) or not receiving RBV (p < 0.05), in those with a baseline eGFR less than 60 ml/min/1.73 m² (p < 0.001) and in those with SVR (p < 0.05). An improvement in eGFR (defined as an increase in baseline eGFR of at least 10 ml/min/1.73 m²) was observed in 148 patients (36.7%). At multivariate analysis, age (aHR 0.96; 95 CI 0.93–0.99, p < 0.01) and a diagnosis of diabetes (aHR 0.02; 95 CI 0.20–0.87, p < 0.05) were inversely and independently associated with improvement in renal function, while the presence of Child–Pugh B cirrhosis at baseline was associated with an improvement in renal function (aHR 3.07; 95 CI 1.49–6.30, p < 0.01).

DAAs correlate with an improvement in renal function, underlining the importance of hepatitis C virus eradication to achieve also an improvement in extra-hepatic disorders.