The Psychosocial Burden of HCV Infection and the Impact of Antiviral Therapy on the Quality of Life in Liver and Kidney Transplant Recipients: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Background. Therapy with direct-acting antivirals (DAA) for HCV is safe and effective in the liver (LT) and kidney transplant (KT) recipients; however, data on the quality of life (QoL) of patients are scanty. This pilot study is aimed at prospectively evaluating the QoL in LT and KT recipients before and after DAA treatment. Methods. We prospectively enrolled 17 LT and 11 KT recipients with HCV infection starting a sofosbuvir-based antiviral therapy for 12 weeks. All participants before (T0), 12 (T12), and 24 (T24) weeks after the end of the therapy completed the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) questionnaire, the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI—Y1–Y2). Results. At T0, LT and KT patients were similar for gender, age, BMI, smoking habits, marital status, mean liver stiffness values at Fibroscan, and HCV genotype distribution ( $p>0.05$ ). There were no significant differences between the 2 groups in STAI-Y1, STAI-Y2, Zung, and SF-36 scores ( $p>0.05$ ). At T12, all the participants showed a sustained virological response (SVR). All items of the SF-36 questionnaire improved from the pretreatment to posttreatment period within the LT group, and the 4 domains role-physical, bodily pain, social function, role-emotional, and mental health reached statistical significance ( $p<0.05$ in all cases). On the contrary, in KT patients, there was no significant improvement in SF-36 mean scores compared to at baseline at T12 and T24. Conclusions. This pilot study suggested that DAA therapy is associated with a significant improvement of the QoL only in LT recipients. Probably, KT recipients did not consider HCV a “central player” in the course of their disease, and HCV eradication did not significantly impact on their QoL.