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Antiviral Therapy 13:555–562
Original article Treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B who have failed previous antiviral treatment with pegylated interferon α2a (40 kDa; PEGASYS®) Henry L-Y Chan*, Vincent W-S Wong, Angel M-L Chim, Grace L-H Wong, Hoi-Yun Chan and Joseph J-Y Sung Department of Medicine and Therapeutics and Institute of Digestive Disease, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China *Corresponding author: E-mail:
[email protected]
Background: Although nucleot(s)ide analogues can effectively suppress hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication, many patients experience relapse of hepatitis after cessation of treatment. We aimed to investigate the efficacy of pegylated interferon α2a (PEG-IFN-α2a) in these difficult-to-treat patients. Methods: Chronic hepatitis B patients who have received antiviral drugs for ≥12 months and stopped for ≥6 months were treated by 48-week PEG-IFN-α2a. Virological response was defined as HBV DNA 0.990. HBV genotyping was determined by restriction fragment length polymorphism and confirmed by direct sequencing in case of doubt in the residual serum samples at the initial visit, as described previously © 2008 International Medical Press
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Pegylated interferon for antiviral failure
[24,25]. Lamivudine- and adefovir-resistant mutants were determined by the INNO-LiPA HBV DR2 assay according to the instructions of the manufacturer (Innogenetics N.V., Ghent, Belgium) [26].
(AUC) was used to determine the predictive values of baseline and residual HBV DNA at different time intervals for sustained virological response. Statistical significance was taken as P-value
