Interferon-α plus lamivudine vs lamivudine reduces breakthroughs, but does not affect sustained response in HBeAg negative chronic hepatitis B

Table 1 Baseline characteristics of patients

	IFN-α+lamivudine(n = 24)	Lamivudine(n = 26)	P
Age (median, IQR)	53 (47, 60)	58 (41, 66)	0.36
Male (%)	15/24 (63)	18/26 (69)	0.62
ALT, median (IQR)	79 (57, 100)	59 (52, 94)	0.24
AST, median (IQR)	59 (51, 89)	60 (40, 94)	0.43
log10(HBV), median (IQR)	6.1 (5.2, 7.2)	5.9 (5.2, 6.6)	0.72
Previous IFN-α therapy (%)	13/24 (54)	15/26 (58)	0.80
Cirrhosis1 (%)	11/24 (45.8)	13/26 (50)	0.7

IFN: interferon; IQR: interquartile range. P-values were derived from Mann-Whitney and c2 tests as appropriate. 1Ishak classification, fibrosis 5 or 6.