Hypereosinophilia and hepatitis C

Abstract

We report a case of a 59-year-old Italian man with a history of alcoholic abuse and sustained peripheral blood eosinophilia since 2 years. He arrived at our hospital with progressive oedema, palpitations, dyspnea by heart failure. During hospital stay a diagnosis of CEL-NOS, heart failure and hepatitis C was made. Due to the severe hepatopathy and the mild HCV genotype, along with the therapeutic effect of interferon in chronic myeloid disorders, the patient was treated with PEG-interferon alpha-2a 180 μg weekly and ribavirin 1,000 mg daily. At the end of the treatment the patient showed an important decrease of eosinophil count, normalisation of liver enzymes and the absence of circulating HCV-RNA.

Keywords

• Eosinophilia
• Chronic eosinophilic leukemia
• Hepatitis C