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V. Descamps, F. Fiszenson‐Albala, Dermatitis induced by first‐generation hepatitis C virus protease inhibitors, British Journal of Dermatology, Volume 173, Issue 1, 1 July 2015, Pages 311–312, https://doi.org/10.1111/bjd.13694
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Funding sources: none.
Conflicts of interest: none declared.
Dear Editor, We read with great interest the U.K. experience of the cutaneous side‐effects of first‐generation hepatitis C virus (HCV) protease inhibitors.1 The majority of the side‐effects are mild‐to‐moderate and are generally similar to those observed with peginterferon‐α (PEG‐IFN)/ribavirin, including xerosis, pruritus and eczema.1 2 The authors stated that these adverse reactions had a class effect but they did not discuss the pathophysiology.
It is remarkable that these dermatological manifestations were already known in patients with untreated chronic hepatitis C. However, their frequency increased with the use of IFN and became more frequent with the development of a PEG‐IFN/ribavirin schedule. We previously studied the prevalence of skin manifestations in patients with chronic hepatitis C at the Department of Hepatology, Beaujon Hospital, Clichy, France, in 2003.3 Xerosis, pruritus and eczema were observed in 14%, 6% and 7% of the patients not receiving any treatment (n = 98) and in 49%, 48% and 19% in patients treated with PEG‐IFN/ribavirin (n = 108 patients), respectively. Recent data have demonstrated that the use of telaprevir and boceprevir dramatically increased their frequency.
