Abstract: Objective To evaluate the efficacy and influence factors of pegylated interferon alpha-2a （Peg IFN alpha-2a） plus ribavirin （RBV） for treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C. Methods Three hundred and thirty-one patients with chronic hepatitis C were treated with Peg IFN alpha-2a（180 μg/week or 135 μg/week） plus RBV（900 to 1200 mg/d） for 48 to 72 weeks， and all patients were followed up for 24 weeks after treatment. HCV genotypes，HCV RNA by PCR and liver function index were tested before and after therapy，respectively. Results Rapid virologic response（RVR），early virologic response （EVR） and sustained virologic response （SVR） were 65%（215/331），94.9% （314/331） and 84.9%（281/331），respectively in this series of patients with CHC；HCV genotypes were obtained in 176 patients， and the SVR was 88.0% and 79.4% in 108 patients with HCV genotype-1 infection and 68 with non-genotype 1 infection，respectively，which did not differ statistically between the two groups；Higher SVR of 93.3% was obtained in 75 patients with baseline HCV RNA ≤4×105 IU/ml than 82.4% （P<0.05） in 256 patients with >4×105 IU/ml；SVR in 215 patients having RVR was significantly higher than that in 116 patients having not （92.6% vs. 70.7%，x2=28.099，P=0.000）；Similarly，SVR in 314 patients having EVR was significantly higher than that in 17 patients having not （88.5% vs. 17.6%，x2=63.194，P=0.000）；The age of 50 patients with CHC who did not achieve SVR [（46±15） years] was older than that of 281 patients who did [（38±13） years，P<0.05]，and the duration of infection in patients who did not achieved SVR [（14.8±8.0） years] was longer than that in patients who did [（11.5±7.7） years，P<0.05）. Conclusion Peginterferon alpha-2a plus ribavirin is effective in treatment of patients with CHC， and the efficacy is related to serum HCV RNA load at baseline， age of patients， disease course， and RVR or EVR at early stage of the regimen.

Key words: Chronic hepatitis C, Interferon alpha-2a, Ribavirin, Virologic response