On-treatment quantitative hepatitis B e antigen predicted response to nucleos(t)ide analogues in chronic hepatitis B

Table 1 Baseline clinical characteristics of patients with chronic hepatitis B according to treatment response after 96-wk nucleos(t)ide analogues therapy

Parameters	Overall	VR (+)	VR (-)	P value	SC (+)	SC (-)	P value
n (%)	76	43 (56.6)	33 (43.4)	-	15 (19.7)	61 (80.3)	-
Gender, female/male	20/56	15/28	5/28	0.053	5/10	15/46	0.491
Age, yr	32.63 ± 9.69	32.3 ± 9.83	33.06 ± 9.63	0.738	31.87 ± 11.6	32.82 ± 9.26	0.735
HBsAg, lg IU/mL	3.95 ± 0.83	3.96 ± 0.68	3.94 ± 1.00	0.881	3.93 ± 0.60	3.96 ± 0.88	0.385
HBeAg, lg PEIU/mL	2.24 ± 1.31	2.18 ± 1.38	2.32 ± 1.22	0.679	2.36 ± 1.41	2.21 ± 1.29	0.527
anti-HBc, lg IU/mL	4.77 ± 0.46	4.82 ± 0.43	4.71 ± 0.50	0.311	4.85 ± 0.44	4.75 ± 0.47	0.464
ALT, U/L	213.73 ± 157.17	247.95 ± 150.58	169.13 ± 156.56	0.029	216.49 ± 153.18	213.05 ± 159.38	0.94
ALT strata, ≥/< 5ULN	31/45	25/18	6/27	< 0.001	9/6	22/39	0.091
HBV DNA, lg copies/mL	8.16 ± 1.34	8.06 ± 1.45	8.3 ± 1.19	0.608	8.55 ± 0.91	8.07 ± 1.41	0.324
Genotype, C/non-C	53/23	31/12	22/11	0.61	10/5	43/18	0.773

VR (+)/VR (-), with/without virological response at week 96 (virological response: HBV DNA ≤ 300 copies/mL); SC (+)/SC (-), with/without HBeAg seroconversion at week 96. HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; VR: Virological response; SC: HBeAg seroconversion; ULN: Upper limit of normal.