Early declines in serum hepatitis B surface (HBsAg) levels, their optimal cutoffs, and association with therapeutic endpoints in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients receiving entecavir treatment remain unclear. We prospectively enrolled 529 patients (195 hepatitis B e antigen [HBeAg]-positive and 334 HBeAg-negative) with a median treatment duration of 49.2 months. Median HBsAg levels declined si...

PURPOSE Different stages of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection can be defined by serum HBV DNA levels. This study attempts to (1) investigate serum HBV DNA levels in inactive carriers and patients with chronic HBV (CHB) infection and (2) define cut-off value between inactive carriers and HBeAg (precore antigen of HBV) negative CHB patients in Indian population. METHODS One hundred and forty sa...

Perinatal transmission of hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been controlled incompletely despite adequate immunoprophylaxis in infants. The aim of this study was to characterize virological factors of HBV associated with vaccine failure in Thailand. Sera of 14 infected infants (13 HBeAg-positive and one HBeAg-negative) with vaccine failure and their respective mothers (group M1) were tested quantitat...

BACKGROUND Chronic infection with hepatitis B virus (HBV) causes a spectrum of diseases ranging from asymptomatic infective state to cirrhosis and hepato-cellular carcinoma. The asymptomatic state has highly variable characteristics. METHODS Sixty-one incidentally detected asymptomatic HBsAg-positive subjects (IDAHS), in whom HBsAg positivity persisted for > 6 months, were studied for liver b...

OBJECTIVE To analyze the effect of increasing Entecavir (ETV) dosage in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) who partially responded to ETV after 1 year. METHODS Twenty-three hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive and 36 HBeAg-negative patients with CHB were treated with ETV 0.5 mg daily. After 1 year of the treatment, those with detectable hepatitis B virus (HBV-DNA) were randomized to ei...

The focus of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of sequential peginterferon α-2a (Pegasys) therapy for chronic hepatitis B with acute exacerbation [ALT > 10 × upper limit of normal (ULN), bilirubin <2.0 mg/dL]. Four groups of patients categorized by HBeAg status and treatment regimens were studied since May 2007. Nineteen HBeAg-positive patients (Group 1) had received entecavir ...

BACKGROUND & AIMS Durable post-treatment response is uncommon in chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients on nucleos(t)ide analogue therapy. Response, response predictors and safety were assessed in patients who switched from long-term entecavir (ETV) to peginterferon alfa-2a. METHODS Hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-positive CHB patients who had received ETV for 9-36 months, with HBeAg <100 PEIU/ml a...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the reactivation of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) following transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) in Chinese hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients with low serum HBV DNA level, and to analyze the factors related to HBV reactivation in HCC patients with low serum HBV DNA level. METHODS From November 2011 to January 2014, 109 patients newly diagnosed with HCC with an H...

To investigate the impact of early HBV DNA suppression after receiving entecavir (ETV) on treatment response in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive chronic (CHB) patients. A total 140 baseline DNA-matched HBeAg-positive patients ETV were enrolled. Of those 70 achieved virological at week 24 (VR24 group) and remaining failed to achieve VR24 (non-VR24 group). Factors serological outcomes analy...

BACKGROUND Limited studies have been done on chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients defined according to the latest Asian-Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver guideline with liver histology by a large sample size. METHODS We retrospectively evaluated liver histological characteristics on a cohort of consecutive treatment-naive CHB patients with persistent normal alanine aminotransferase...