Renal impairment during the treatment of telaprevir with peginterferon and ribavirin in patients with chronic hepatitis C

Aim Renal damage has been reported as an important complication during combination treatment of peginterferon (PEG IFN), ribavirin (RBV) and telaprevir (TVR) for chronic hepatitis C. However, very little is known about this complication. We investigated the role TVR plays in renal damage during this triple therapy. Methods Twenty‐five chronic hepatitis C patients with genotype 1 and high viral load received TVR in combination with PEG IFN and RBV for 12 weeks followed by treatment with PEG IFN and RBV. Renal function of these patients was prospectively evaluated for 16 weeks. Results Creatinine clearance decreased significantly during PEG IFN/RBV/TVR treatment. Consequently, serum creatinine and cystatin C significantly rose during PEG IFN/RBV/TVR treatment. Serum creatinine returned to pretreatment levels after the termination of TVR. The increase of serum creatinine and cystatin C from baseline significantly correlated with serum TVR level at day 7, which was determined by starting dose of TVR per bodyweight . When the patients were classified according to the starting dose of TVR per bodyweight, renal impairment was observed only in the high‐dose (TVR ≥33 mg/kg per day) group, not in the low‐dose (TVR