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

Table 3 Predictive value of hepatitis B e antigen titer as well as its declined value at week 12 and 24 for virological response after 96-wk nucleos(t)ide analogues therapy

Factors	ROC		Sensitivity (95%CI)	Specificity (95%CI)	PPV (95%CI)	NPV (95%CI)
	AUROC (95%CI)	P value
Week 12
HBeAg < 0.8 lg PEIU/mL	0.733 (0.617-0.849)	0.001	0.63 (0.48-0.78)	0.81 (0.67-0.96)	0.82 (0.68-0.96)	0.62 (0.47-0.77)
HBeAg decline > 0.84 lg PEIU/mL	0.709 (0.590-0.827)	0.002	0.65 (0.50-0.80)	0.75 (0.59-0.91)	0.78 (0.64-0.92)	0.62 (0.46-0.78)
Combined the above	0.812 (0.687-0.936)	< 0.001	0.71 (0.54-0.89)	0.91 (0.78-1.00)	0.91 (0.78-1.00)	0.71 (0.54-0.89)
Week 24
HBeAg < 1.3 lg PEIU/mL	0.788 (0.683-0.892)	< 0.001	0.88 (0.78-0.98)	0.64 (0.46-0.81)	0.76 (0.63-0.88)	0.81 (0.65-0.97)
HBeAg decline > 1.6 lg PEIU/mL	0.736 (0.620-0.851)	< 0.001	0.55 (0.39-0.70)	0.94 (0.85-1.00)	0.92 (0.81-1.00)	0.62 (0.48-0.76)
Combined the above	0.923 (0.838-1.000)	< 0.001	0.85 (0.70-0.99)	1	1	0.83 (0.66-0.99)

HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen; VR: Virological response (HBV DNA ≤ 300 copies/mL); AUROC: Area under the receiver operating characteristic curve; PPV: Positive predictive value; NPV: Negative predictive value.