Well boys & gals, had to stop my riba today.

[orleans]

How long will I maintain a useful amount of riba in my blood? I was 100% compliant until 1/30, that is 26 weeks. I suffer migraines and they have progressively become more numerous the last 3 months. I decided I was gonna make 24 wks no matter what. Was intending to do 36 weeks as a RVR. Starting last tues. EVERY time I took my Riba I got a headache. Imitrex is the only thing that works for me but you are not supposed to take more than 4 doses per month. My Neuro. says 8 doses a month are safe. 1 or 2 doses a day is NOT good. Gonna see if I can get in to see him but he can be tough to get to. Soooo, back to my ???. I know riba has a very long 1/2 life. Anyone know how long I can go without it before re-starting it would be a waste? jerry  

[jmjm530]

yes, both quotes seem on "unequivocal" and therefore this study and others like it really have to be carefully combo over in full text before basing any kind of treatment decision on it.

[HCA]

This qoute is fairly unequivical tho'
'Ribavirin dose reduction had a minimal impact on SVR in the subset of patients who achieved rapid virological response (RVR) by four weeks, even if they received less than 60% of the intended cumulative dose'

[jmjm530]

this study really has to be gone over with a fine tooth comb and also compared to other studies with the 80/80/80 rule. Also, unclear if the 60% is broken down into those who stopped riba completely or just some sort of average.

From the same study mentioned:

"To address the issue of the impact of dose reductions after week 12, we evaluated patients who had greater than 97% ribavirin exposure up to week 12 and then a reduced dose during weeks 13-48. Table 4 shows that ribavirin dose reductions after week 12 for patients with earlier optimal exposure had a negative impact on SVR when the cumulative exposure during weeks 13-48 was 80% or less (P = .0372; odds ratio, 0.79)."
http://www.natap.org/2007/HCV/012607_02.htm

[HCA]

Found another version of the same thing.
http://www.hcvadvocate.org/news/newsRev/2007/HJR-4.3.html#1

[HCA]

Quote for you;
'The volume of distribution of ribavirin is large (2000 L/kg) and the length of time the drug is trapped varies greatly from tissue to tissue. The mean half-life for multiple doses in the body is about 12 days, but very long-term kinetics are dominated by the kinetics of RBCs (half-life 40 days). RBCs store ribavirin for the lifetime of the cells, releasing it into the body's systems when old cells are degraded in the spleen.'
I'll try and find the study.

[jmjm530]

again, I'm not disagreeing with you, but I think you would agree that Jerry would be best served if he tried to dig up the actual study, in full text version,  to go over with his medical team.

Jerry, as mentioned earlier, your rebel levels will decline probably within days. How much of an effect this will have at your treatment juncture, with alinina , I really have no idea