Effect of switching from treatment with nucleos(t)ide analogs to pegylated interferon α-2a on virological and serological responses in chronic hepatitis B patients

Table 3 Predictors of response to PEGylated interferon-α-2a using baseline parameters and hepatitis B surface antigen levels at week 24

	HBsAg loss at week 48		HBeAg seroconversion at week 48
	n	P value	n	P value
HBsAg level < 1500 IU/mL at baseline	5/12 (41.67%)	0.0161	10/16 (62.5%)	0.0071
HBsAg level ≥ 1500 IU/mL at baseline	2/32 (6.25%)		5/28 (17.86%)
HBeAg-positive at baseline	5/29 (17.24%)	1.0001	-	-
HBeAg-negative at baseline	2/15 (13.33%)		-
HBsAg level < 1500 IU/mL at week 24	7/19 (36.84%)	0.0041	8/17 (47.06%)	0.2661
HBsAg level ≥ 1500 IU/mL at week 24	0/25 (0)		7/27 (25.93%)

¹Continuity correction, α = 0.05. HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; HBeAg: Hepatitis B envelope antigen.