vl question

[jamesvan]

My Viral load is 51893 iu/ml and 4.72 log10 iu/ml.
Is this low, medium or high.
I'll be getting my genotype results soon but want to see whhat people think.
Haven't started treatment (peg-interferon) yet but have commenced herbal, anti virals.
Any advice would be appreciated

Thanks

[Bill1954]

Good deal—

Genotype will give you some insight as to how you’ll responds to therapy, and also determine the duration of it as well. Will you eventually want to treat your disease?

You might also want to discuss biopsy eventually as well, especially if you think you’ll postpone/delay therapy for any reason. Biopsy results can determine urgency for treatment. If little damage is present, you might want to wait a bit; there are newer, more efficacious drugs right now in clinical trial that could be approved as soon as next year. If you have very significant scarring present, it might be better to undergo therapy sooner than that.

Again, all the best—

Bill

[jamesvan]

Thanks Bill

Also my alt-24, ast-23, gamma gt-13, ld-175. All are within range if not low. I saw my GI yesterday and she was pleased with the results. Now I'm waiting for the genotype to come back to discuss treatment. And regarding botanicals, I am cautious about certain remedies. Thanks again for your advice

J

[Bill1954]

Hi there,

A viral load of 51893 IU/mL is considered low; the current cut off for low viral load is 400,000 IU/mL (log 4.60).

However, as you probably already know, viral load doesn’t necessarily correlate with disease progression; it’s possible to have significant fibrosis even with a low viral load, and conversely little damage with viral loads in the 10’s of millions. Viral load really becomes important once a patient begins therapy; at that point, it I used as a barometer to response.

There isn’t much in the way of published, peer reviewed evidence for the use of botanicals to manage this disease; be wary of how and where you spend your money on herbs and supplements; and understand their limitations.

Welcome to the discussion group, by the way—

Bill