病毒性肝炎是一个严重的全球性公共卫生问题,目前公认的有甲、乙、丙、丁、戊5种肝炎病毒,其中超过半数的肝硬化和肝细胞癌（hepatocellular carcinoma,HCC）由慢性乙型病毒性肝炎（chronic hepatitis B virus,CHB）和慢性丙型病毒性肝炎（chronic hepatitis C virus,CHC）感染发展而来,约有15％-40％患者会进展为肝硬化、肝硬化失代偿期和HCC．每年有超过100万人死于HBV感染所致的肝衰竭、肝硬化和HCCE。
Objective To assess on-treatment serum HBsAg and HBV DNA kinetics in HBeAg-positive CHB patients to predict the efficacy of pegylated interferon(PEG-IFN) in early phase of treatment. Methods Forty-one treatment-naive HBeAg-positive patients treated with PEG-IFNα 2a at a dose of 180 μg/week for at least 24 weeks were evaluated. Their treatment response was assessed, including normalization of serum ALT, decline of serum HBV DNA and loss of HBeAg. Results We found that a decrease of HBV DNA level at the 4th week was positively correlated with the decrease of HBV DNA level at the 12th week and 24th week(r = 0.8202, P < 0.0001 and r = 0.6838, P < 0.0001, respectively). We observed that a decrease of HBsAg level at the 4th week was positively correlated with decrease of HBsAg level at the 12th week and 24th week(r = 0.4868, P = 0.0023 and r = 0.4251, P = 0.0109, respectively). A decrease of HBsAg level at the 24th week was positively correlated with the decrease of HBV DNA level at the 24th week(r = 0.5262, P = 0.0024). Serum level of IFN and IFN neutralizing antibody had no relationship with HBV DNA or HBsAg titers kinetics. Conclusions The decline of serum HBV DNA and hepatitis B surface antigen at the 4th week can be used to predict the response to PEG-IFNα 2a in patients with HBeAg positive chronic hepatitis B.
Jian-ming ZhengMing-quan ChenMeng-qi ZhuNing LiQian LiXin-yu WangChong HuangGuang-feng Shi
