My Sons Test

My son has hep c and recently had test results saying...his alk phos was 142...his INR was 1.0 and his RNA, PCR QUANT WAS 241000...the footnotes said "Recommended therapeutic ranges for oral anticoagulant therapy. Less Intense Anticoagulation INR=1. to 3.0  More intense Anticoagulation, INR=2.5 to 3.5. *Therapy should be monitored using INR value, not Protime in seconds." What does all this mean in English? Should I be concerned? What does Anticoagulation have to do with hep c and is the RNA PCR Quant at 241000 a high or dangerous reading? Thank you for any help I am worried sick about this.

[Susie2007]

That is not a high viral load and it is nothing to worry about. The viral load tells you two things. It tells you that he does in fact have the virus, he is not just exposed. They have found it in his blood. So the first thing it does is to confirm the diagnosis. The other things it is good for is to tell if treatment is working. They check it periodically throughout treatment.

The INR is normed on people taking anti-coagulant therapy. His is fine. Do not even think about it. That test is sometimes done automatically by the lab. Coagulation of the blood isn't a problem in hep C unless there is severe liver disease. Clotting factors are made in the liver and when the liver is heavily damaged some people will have bleeding problems.

Try not to be worried sick...hard for a mom as I well know. Even though hep C should never be ignored, most people do rather well with the virus and end up growing old and dying from something else. If your son drinks alcohol or smokes, the best thing he can do for himself, is to stop.

[sandy1122]

Thank you so much for your help. My son was actually diagnosed when he was two...and he had a pretty rough time when he was younger. They tried interferon (at age 3-4) which gave him awful fevers (the highest reached 106) then they tried amentadine. Nothing "cured" it...just slowed the process for a while. Hopefully, something new will come out that will work better. Have you heard of any new treatments? I just worry so much because of his age. I know its a slowwwww disease and if he was 50 or 60 I wouldn't be concerned like this...but he's had it since he was a baby...and I just worry he won't have a full life....

[merryBe]

treatment is promising now at 50-90% cure rates and will be better in 2-5 more years with drugs that top those rates. while he's young he has a better chance to clear than later, but Interferon alone never did work. the addition of antivirals that stop cell replication seems a nessessary adjuct to simply boosting the bodys own defenses and ability to kill virus.
It's like wiping out mamma rat doesn't mean the babies won't be making babies real soon themselves. So now that they have drugs to come at both those angles, things are improving.