Published online Dec 7, 2005. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v11.i45.7179
Revised: March 6, 2005
Accepted: March 9, 2005
Published online: December 7, 2005
AIM: To evaluate the effect of interferon alpha (IFN-α) treatment on the liver histology in children with chronic hepatitis B and to evaluate the usefulness of various histological scoring systems of liver histology in this group of patients.
METHODS: Fibrosis stage and inflammation grade were assessed according to Batts and Ludwig, Ishak et al, and METAVIR (only fibrosis stage) before and 12 mo after IFN-α treatment termination in 93 children aged 2-16 years with chronic hepatitis B.
RESULTS: None of the three numerical scoring systems for liver fibrosis showed statistically significant differences in liver fibrosis, while evolution of inflammatory activity revealed statistically significant improvement in the whole group of children with chronic hepatitis B treated with IFN-α and in responders. Significantly positive correlations were found between fibrosis stage and inflammation grade in the respective scoring systems
CONCLUSION: Treatment with IFN-α did not improve histological fibrosis but decreased inflammatory activity in children with chronic hepatitis B. The three semiquantitative scoring systems seem to be comparable in the estimation of the inflammation grade and fibrosis stage in this group of children.