Effects of antiviral agents and HBV genotypes on intrahepatic covalently closed circular DNA in HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B patients

Table 1 Demographic, histological, biochemical, virological data obtained from three antiviral therapies (mean ± SD)

Parameter	Sequential lamivudine -INF-αtherapy	Lamivudine monotherapy	Interferon monotherapy
Number of patients	24	35	12
Sex ratio (male/female)	21/3	29/6	9/3
Mean age (y)	33 ± 6	32 ± 5	31 ± 8
Mean Knodell score
pretreatment	8.9 ± 3.6	8.2 ± 4.5	7.1 ± 4.0
post-treatment	6.6 ± 4.0a	5.6 ± 3.2a	5.0 ± 2.8
Mean ALT level (nkat/L)
Pretreatment	3423 ± 2388	4390 ± 2454	3006 ± 1720
Post-treatment	668 ± 400a	667 ± 384a	1686 ± 1286a
Serum HBV DNA (log10)
Pretreatment	7.5 ± 1.3	7.7 ± 0.8	7.8 ± 1.1
Post-treatment	3.8 ± 1.0a	3.7 ± 1.2a	5.0 ± 1.5ac
Intrahepatic HBV DNA (log10)
Pretreatment	5.8 ± 1.2	6.2 ± 0.9	6.3 ± 0.9
Post-treatment	4.7 ± 1.1a	4.6 ± 1.5a	5.6 ± 1.5ac
Intrahepatic ccc DNA (log10)
Pretreatment	5.1 ± 1.0	5.2 ± 1.2	5.8 ± 1.2
Post-treatment	3.4 ± 1.3a	3.8 ± 1.1a	5.0 ± 1.5c
HBeAg seroconversion
rate at the treatment completion	8/21 (38.1%)	6/32 (18.6%)	3/12 (25%)
Sustained virological response
rate at 24 wk off treatment	4/16 (25%)	13/31 (41.9%)	1/1 (100%)

^aP < 0.05 vs post-treatment,

^cP < 0.001 vs sequential lamivudine - INF-α therapy and lamivudine monotherapy. HBeAg seroconversion rate at the end of treatment: some post-treatment data were lost, ALT: Alanine aminotransferase, ccc DNA: Covalently closed circular DNA.