Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Randomised and non-randomised controlled studies. Inclusion criteria were:
1. diagnosis of acute non-A, non-B hepatitis or type C hepatitis, either post-transfusion or sporadic;
2. a no-treatment arm in the study, either randomised or non-randomised;
3. a schedule of treatment entirely comparable in terms of dosage and duration.
Specific interventions included in the review
Short-term (3 months) low-dose (3 million units, 3 times a week) IFN. Details of the control treatment were not reported.
Participants included in the review
Patients with acute hepatitis non-A, non-B, or type C (mean age 39 to 54 years). Patients with pre-existing chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection and/or chronic liver disease were excluded from all the primary studies.
Outcomes assessed in the review
Number of patients with normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) after post-treatment follow-up; number of patients clearing HCV RNA from serum after post-treatment follow-up.
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The authors do not state how the papers were selected for the review, or how many of the authors performed the selection.