Background and Aims: Prevalence of hepatitis C virus in- fection is high in northeastern region of India due to high rate of intra-venous drug user. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the therapeutic response of chronic hepati- tis C in northeastern region of India with standard regi- mens of interferon alfa 2b and ribavirin. Methods: Consecutive patients with a diagnosis of CH-C attending the Liver Clinic at Advanced Medical Research In- stitute, Kolkata between January 2002 and April 2011 were included in the study. A competitive reverse transcription- polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method was used for quantification of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-RNA. Genotyping of HCV was also determined. Patients were treated with pe- gylated interferon [pegIFN]-alpha-2b at 1.5 mg/kg body weight/week and ribavirin at weight based dosage. Results: Eighty one with chronic hepatitis C virus infection were included in this study. History of intra-venous drug use was present in 22% (18/81). 15% of CH-C patients had child A cirrhosis. The median HCV load was 1079250copies/ml (range 831-22568000). Genotype 3 was commonest type and account for 65% patients. Combined infection with ge- notype 3 & 4 was found in 15% (12/81). Genotype 1, 4 and 6 were found in 11, 1 and 3 patients respectively. In one pa- tient, we failed to determine specific genotype and patient was treated for one year. Sustained virological response (SVR) was achieved in 89% (72/81). SVR was 100% in geno- type 1 groups. Similarly we found 100% SVR in IVDU groups. Relapse rate was 6%. Four patients did not re- sponded to standard combined therapy. Conclusion: Response to standard combined therapy for CH-C was highly effective. Combined genotype infection was high (15%) in this region. Response rate was 100% in genotype 1 subgroups and IVDU groups. Corresponding author. Sujit Chaudhuri. E-mail: sourjya_c@yahoo.com HEPATITIS B SEROPREVELANCE IN CHRONIC LIVER DISEASE PATIENTS: CORRELATION BETWEEN HBEAG STATUS, VIRAL LOAD AND GENOTYPES Dipu Bharali, Manash Pratim Sarma, Premashis Kar Department of Medicine, Maulana Azad Medical College, India Background and Aims: Hepatitis B Virus infection and chronic HBV is main cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma in India. Study was designed to evaluate HbsAg and HBeAg seroprevelance, viral load in HBeAg positive and negative patients with DNA positivity and the geno- types associated with them. Method: Total 414 patients visited PCR-Hepatitis Labora- tory, LNJP Hospital were recruited with their consent dur- ing January 2012 to November 2012 having liver related complaints. The clinical, demographic data's were col- lected from the patients. Serological test, HBV-DNA, HBV viral load and HBV genotyping was done with tehr- mocycler PCR, Real Time PCR and PCR-RFLP respectively. Results: Among 540 people tested for viral markers, 135 were tested +ve for HbsAg (25%) out of which HBV-DNA was detected in 49 (36.29%). 28 patients (57.14%) were HBeAg +ve with HBV DNA > 105 copies/ml, with an ele- vated ALT level and 21 (42.85%) were HBeAg -Ve, with HBV DNA>104 Copies/ml also with an elevated ALT level. Both HBV DNA and ALT levels were raised among 60.7% (17/28 cases) HBeAg +ve patients and 42.8% (9/21) of HBeAg –ve patients. Genotype D was seen in 35 cases (71.4%) and A in 14 cases (28.5%). There was no significant difference in the viral load with respect to the genotypes. Conclusion: HbsAg seroprevelance was very high (25%) in patients with liver diseases. A majority of (81.5%) of HbsAg positive patients were HBeAg negative possibly due to the length of time of infection. 60.7% of HBeAg +ve patients and 42.8% of HBeAg – ve patients had both HBV DNA and ALT levels raised that will prompt consideration of an- tiviral therapy. The viral load in HBeAg positive patients were 10 times higher than in HBeAg negative patients. Ge- notype A and D of HBV were present in patients from New Delhi, India an d Genotype D is the most predominant ge- notype. Corresponding author. Dipu Bharali. E-mail: dipubhli@gmail.com PREDICTION OF DISEASE PROGRESSION BY EVALUATING THE INTERLEUKIN 10 PROMOTER POLYMORPHISM AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH HBV RELATED LIVER DISEASE Manjita Srivastava, Ashok Kumar Jain, Vinod Kumar Dixit, Sunit Kumar Shukla, Arttrika Ranjan, Jitendra Kumar Choudhary, Manish Kumar Tripathi, Neha Singh Department of Gastroenterology, Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU, Varanasi, India Background: Immune-mediated mechanisms have been found to play important role in the progression of hepati- tis B virus (HBV) infection. Allelic variation of cytokine IL-10 produced by Th-2 act as a potent inhibitor of Th-1 effector mechanisms for host defense and down-regulates the expression of Th1 cytokines. Aim: This study was designed to elucidate whether IL-10 promoter polymorphisms is relevant to progression of chronic HBV infection. Methods: Blood sample from 232 treated patients (106: CHB and 126: Liver cirrhosis) were collected. Genomic ABSTRACTS 21 ST ANNUAL CONFERENCE —2013 S54 © 2013, INASL Viral Hepatitis