TOPIC:

I'm GT 3a not sure how long I've had it... Possibly 28 years or 18 ..... I'm just not sure....
13 days into treatment sofosbuvir & daclatasvir
Got 12 week course
Just not sure how to understand all the statistics I have for my bloods
Viral Load 2.8
Fibro scan 6.4
ALT 66
Platelets 210
AST 42
HB 143
RBC 4.52
Globulin 28
Albumin 44
Ferritin 141
F1- F2

I'm worried that I should have got a longer course of medication, especially with me being a GT3a
My nurse has said my blood results are fine, but I can't understand them and are they really?

Good morning Donna from Oz, I am not sure where you are on the globe but it is early morning here
I would like to try to help you understand these results, and will give it a shot from my humble place here (just educated from being a patient for five years) .

Platelets range is 150-450 for normal range, (I know that, mine dropped to 80 once). So I think yours at 220 is good.
The Kpa number for the fibroscan 6.4 is where they have declared you as F1/2. It is maybe F1? I think a Doctor needs to second opinion this, I am not a doctor, only another tx recipient, but I do know at 5.6 I was declared F0 that was before tx. I also know that there are friends who have finished tx and their F scores have lowered to F0 from where you are now, that is a hope for your future too, more good news.

The ALT, AST, are your Liver functions the main indicators. We call this group of tests LFTs here in Oz. Globulin (Mine is written up as GGT on my reports, Bili and ALP are also in this pathology. HB (haemoglobin) I see on mine the range is 120-155 for normal. RBC is your Red Blood Cell Count. As I understand it, the normal range is between 3.90 to 5.03 trillion cells per litre. Yours seems to be in the middle of the normal range at 4.52.

Your ALT and AST are slightly elevated but I know that is very common with patients it is often how the illness is diagnosed I think, in my experience anyway.. If you check on others 'signatures" you can see these two numbers consistently start to lower as we each go through the treatment.

There are others here with gen3 who will be able o chat to you about that, I was 1A and cleared easily on sof/led after epic failure on peginf riba.

I am pretty sure there is a genotype specific section somewhere on the forum, you can also put a search in to come up with relevant blogs for you, say pop in Genotype 3 in the search box and see what comes up.

Ferritin is iron, and that number seems in range to me, I think the range is okay if you are >100μg/L. I know that it is helpful to have good B12 levels and wonder if the ferritin test was to check your overall iron levels. I am sure that you would have been told if there was a problem with your iron. But again, I am no doctor, just trying too help you out.

Maybe ask others who have Gen3 about tx duration, and seek a second opinion form GP2U/monkmed if you are concerned too.

I am not sure what VL2.8 means because here it came on my reports in thousands, so you are getting a different type of reading. I also do not know if it is relevant to tx, that again is for a medical expert.

I wish you success, a peaceful as possible time during your treatment and the best thing? You have started now on your path to getting rid of the illness. You are in good company here, many helpful resources are available on this site, and yes there are people to help. I am looking forward to hearing of your journey to cure, sending you happies and best wishes for your questions I hope that I have given you some assistance from my own little journey with these pathologies and so on. I am sure if I have made an error trying to help you here that it will be corrected by a more educated person, so wait and see who responds in case I have not been correct but I hope I have....

Love form Ariel

Hi Donna,

Lots of good information there from Ariel. I'm not a doctor either but from what I can see you can afford to relax a little as none of your results seem to be cause for alarm and you have several weeks or more to make a decision regarding length of treatment. One piece of information that would assist people to understand your situation a little better is whether the test results you have listed were taken prior to starting treatment or are they based on your current status after about two weeks medication?

Regarding length of treatment and your nurse's comments, with more people treating it has been found that GT3 is proving a little more difficult to treat than those clinical trials anticipated so some are suggesting a longer course of treatment to increase the chances of clearing the virus the first time round. Although you may only increase your chances by a few percent it seems to make some sense to do so first try if you can afford it as an individual but for a government it works out cheaper to treat everyone for 12 weeks, cure most of them then go back and retreat the failed 5-10% for 24 weeks the second time round. That is the context of Dr Freeman's comments in the other thread to Lukemeister who was also a GT3 with F2 fibroscan although he had prior (unsuccessful) treatment experience.

fixhepc.com/forum/gt3/1290-question-to-d...nt-length.html#21378

I hope that helps you to clarify your thoughts and fortunately you have a few weeks to make the best decision for your circumstances. As Ariel suggests, have a look around and please feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Here are some further links I quickly found on length of treatment for GT3.

fixhepc.com/forum/questions-and-answers/...he-answer.html#14900
fixhepc.com/forum/gt3/885-post-treatment-gt-3a.html#14166
fixhepc.com/forum/gt3/861-alt-ast-ratio.html#14152

Hi Donna,'my do said any fibroscan result under 7 is F0, but maybe your test is measured differently.
You will quite likely be tested 4 weeks after start of treatment and it's the comparison that is important,mainly you liver functions and VL.
The ALT especially is a good indicator of whether the treatment is working. Oh,and how you are feeling.
But then it varies depending on if you ave been treated before or not, e.g. peging
Good luck with your treatment, wishing you a fabulous result and a long and healthy life

The viral load of 2.8 is the log value. 10^2.8 = 630 IU/ml

<15 = log 1.08
100 = log 2
1000 = log 3

There is an explanation of various HCV terminology here: fixhepc.com/component/content/article.html?id=45:glossary

This level is not as good as we sometimes see but is missing the context of what you started at. If you started from 10 million (log 7) it is a 4.2 log drop and is good. If you started with a viral load of 100,000 (log 5) then it a 2.2 log drop which is less good. Same with the ALT value. No context.

If you have never had treatment before then with your low level of fibrosis 12 weeks should be fine.

Yes confusing. My doctor tells me I'm undetected, yet it shows <15, not so sure now.
Very interesting. Though I must admit I would rather have a <15 than X hundreds of thousands or millions. So we'll wait and see, I'm feeling very good though as well.

Hi Everyone, feeling so emotional with all the replies, so kind that you all care. It's been such a lonely journey these 5 months since I found out I was positive. I am lucky that I was just a bit concerned about a raised ALT reading , I didn't know what it meant and just remember my GP saying it was high a couple of years back..... Anyway I did nothing as she wasn't concerned and I was a bit naive ...but it must have been in the back of my mind and a friend had liver cancer...so I went back and said can you see if I'm ok please that reading was high! So had a full liver test, and came back as positive and GT 3a. First fibro scan read 7.5, then I had a reading of 6.4. This is my only treatment. Them results are from before I started treatment. The only treatment I was offered here was interferon and ribaviron. I have a child with extra needs, so I need to be able to look after them, so them 2 drugs didn't look good! So here I am on my journey and I'm so glad I found fix hep c. The side effects I have so far have been waking a lot in the night, 10 + times, but I can sleep and am not awake ... Very vivid dreams.. I've had fatigue ( but not every day) and tender chest. Anyway these are all manageable and I'm being kind to myself. I have 1 st appointment with my nurse on 26th. I will be getting results of ultrasound. Also she will be doing my bloods ( I think?) I will be 22 days on medications by then. I'm lucky that I will be getting monitored. They did say "no" but I told them I was going ahead and would take treatment regardless of whether they monitored me or not. I took newspaper articles to my consultant, and asked him should I move to the place they would monitor me? He said he would bring my concerns up at next meeting..." It's time we revisited this" were his words. I was open and honest, I kept in touch with GP and nurse re me getting medication from fix hep c. Consultant, GP and nurse have agreed to monitor. Thanks again to all who replied, really made me feel less alone to wake up to them ...

The viral load is from before I started treatment.
All these results are from before I started treatment

If those are your pre treatment bloods you are at the very mild end of the spectrum and good SVR rates are expected with 12 weeks treatment.

Thank You James Freeman... These are my pre treatment bloods... So I'm happy that 12 weeks treatment will probably be enough

just a little update.... went to GP Thursday 22nd, she sent me to get bloods done...
I have appointment Monday 26th with my Liver nurse... results of bloods should be back.... fingers crossed X

21 days on treatment and had a few results today. ALT has dropped to 20. Liver looks fine. Will get viral load result next week. I'm massively relieved, it all seems to be working!

So I just got VIral Results for my 3 wk test
ALT had dropped to 20
My liver nurse just told me its undetectable....
Will go and see her Monday
She said they will do 8 wk and 12 wk testing on me....
She said she had told my consultant...
And he yes " they are the real deal" he was so positive when I said about fixhepc ...
Although he couldn't actually help me with the meds....
Feeling so relieved that it's all working

Yay Donna
Thanks for the great news and super early in tx too
This one is a winner I rekn
Happiness to you for keeping on keeping on, sending goodvibes and happy splashes from Ariel