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Could my pegylated interferon / ribavirin therapy of six years ago have cause my atrial fibrillation and hyperetrophic cardiomyopathy?
(I posted this weeks ago but no doctor was in charge of the forum then,
so I'm trying again for a doctor. Thank you.)
Hello. I had hepatitis C for forty or forty-five years, and when I discovered I had it in 1989, I didn't take treatment until 2005 when I was 69 because I didn't have recognizable symptoms--just what seemed like being tired more than I should have been. I am lucky in not having a detectable amount of hep C in my blood after six years, but I have developed, in the past two or three years, atrial fibrillation and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and I'm wondering if this could have been brought on by the pegylated Interferon / Ribavirin therapy because I was under a lot of stress during treatment and felt some of the same symptoms that I have now. Thank you.
so I'm trying again for a doctor. Thank you.)
Hello. I had hepatitis C for forty or forty-five years, and when I discovered I had it in 1989, I didn't take treatment until 2005 when I was 69 because I didn't have recognizable symptoms--just what seemed like being tired more than I should have been. I am lucky in not having a detectable amount of hep C in my blood after six years, but I have developed, in the past two or three years, atrial fibrillation and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and I'm wondering if this could have been brought on by the pegylated Interferon / Ribavirin therapy because I was under a lot of stress during treatment and felt some of the same symptoms that I have now. Thank you.
Most of us that are treating are older mature or immature adults. Treatment can be very hard on the body for sure. at 69 sometimes the natural course of aging starts to set in. I dont think there would be anyway to know if it was the interferon. I guess you could google interferon exposure and reported heart problems . I do have to take an EKG every 4 weeks during this trial that I am in. And I had to have a clean EKG before I started.
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Currently many people have treated with interferon in various forms and types of treatments and yet many doctors are unfamiliar with some rather common side effects. One reads about them with enough regularity in bulletin boards and yet there is little done in studies or in documentation and quantification of the resultant issues. Therefore the information remains largely anecdotal.
So....is it possible? Maybe, but if you search you will not find it to be a common side effect of TX. It may have more to do with genetics, advancing age or the effects of long term HCV infection/inflamation.
Just as it was very difficult to prove causation with cigarettes and cancer it would be difficult if not nearly possible to prove what may have caused your specific issue(s).
I would venture that if it were common we would see more people asking about it in HCV forums. If is is possible I would guess that it is not common.
Is it possible?
This may suggest that it is possible;
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0735109704017437
find the table labeled;
"Table 2. Drugs* Reported to Potentially Induce AF"
and find;
Cytokines and immunomodulators† Interferon-gamma, interleukin-3, interleukin-6
Keep in mind this is not the same form of interferon used in SOC. If IFN gamma can cause AK how about IFN alpha? Dunno.
Keep in mind that "reported to potentially induce AF" does NOT mean repeatedly PROVEN to produce AF.
Possible? Almost anything is possible. It may even be plausible. Making a case that your issues were caused by IFN or RBV is a different story. It seems uncommon and potentially caused by a number of issues. I'm not certain how or who could sort it out definitively.
Sorry.... I don't know and I doubt most doctors also would not know and would be inclined to suspect more commonly known and proven factors.
willy