End-of-treatment virologic response does not predict relapse after lamivudine treatment for chronic hepatitis B

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of HBeAg-negative and -posi-tive patients

	HBeAg-negative	HBeAg-positive	P value
Case number	12	14	-
Male-number (%)	10 (83)	13 (93)	0.58
Age (yr)	45.2 ± 15.3	35.3 ± 11.2	0.08
ALT (IU/L)	227 (80-2410)	281 (84-1298)	0.92
Serum total bilirubin	2.9 (0.9-18.6)	1.1 (0.6-11.7)	0.24
(mg/dL)
Serum HBV DNA	272 (3-3121)	863 (7-3376)	0.65
level (pg/mL)
HBV genotype	9/3 (75/25)	10/4 (71/29)	1.00
B/C-number (%)
Duration of lamivudine	12.3 ± 1.9	14.2 ± 4.9	0.23
treatmen-mo

Continuous values are expressed as mean ± SD or median (range). HBV DNA levels were determined by a branched DNA assay (Bayer Corporation).