A controlled trial of high dose interferon, alone and after prednisone withdrawal, in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B: long term follow up.

This study was designed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of high dose interferon, with or without prednisone pretreatment, in patients with chronic hepatitis B. Patients were randomised to two treatment groups: group I (n = 26) received six weeks of prednisone followed by a two week, drug free period, and then 10 million units (MU) of interferon alfa-2b three times weekly subcutaneously for 16 weeks; group II (n = 24) were used as controls for 24 weeks and then treated with interferon. Loss of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and hepatitis B virus (HBV)-DNA, with a return to normal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity, was seen in 16 of 26 group I patients (61.5%), in one group II patient (4.2%) during the control phase, and in 13 of 23 group II patients (56.5%) after interferon. Three of 26 (11.5%) in group I and one of 23 (4.3%) in group II eliminated the surface antigen (HBsAg). There were no statistically significant differences in response between groups I and II. Liver biopsies carried out in 20 patients showed that responders had a noticeable reduction in inflammation and disappearance of core antigen in liver tissue, changes not seen in non-responders. On long term follow up (four years), nine out of 28 responders (32.1%) eliminated HBsAg, and four initial non-responders had a late seroconversion.