Different natural courses of chronic hepatitis B with genotypes B and C after the fourth decade of life

Table 1 Characteristics of patients with genotypes B and C

	< 30-yr-old group		≥ 30-yr-old group
	Genotype B	Genotype C	Genotype B	Genotype C
Number of patients	27	23	41	30
Age (yr, mean ± SD)	21.6 ± 5.3	22.2 ± 4.4	45.5 ± 10.8	42.7 ± 8.7
Gender (Male/Female)	19/8	16/7	37/4	22/8
HBeAg (+/-)	24/3	21/2	4/37	19/11b
Observation period	69.0 ± 53.4	62.8 ± 45.9	77.9 ± 50.1	87.0 ± 50.6
(mo, mean ± SD)
ALT (IU/L, mean ± SD)	266.3 ± 262.1	245.8 ± 292.4	223.1 ± 251.7	265.8 ± 359.8
Degree of fibrosis (0/1/2/3)	4/11/5/1	2/13/2/2	6/13/10/4	2/13/6/7

^bP < 0.0001 vs genotype B in ≥ 30-yr-old group.

Table 2 Cox proportional hazard analysis for development of LC

	< 30-yr-old group			≥ 30-yr-old group
Variables	Relativerisk	95% CI	P	Relativerisk	95% CI	P
Gender (Male/Female)	0	-	0.972	0	0.000-3.993	0.969
HBeAg
Positive	1	0.028-6.469	0.538	1	0.185-3.250	0.727
Negative	2.36			1.29
Degree of fibrosis
Mild-moderate	1	0.080-1.030	0.053	1	0.296-3.238	0.972
Severe	10.87			1.02
Genotypes
B	1	0.019-2.833	0.258	1	0.033-0.916	0.039
C	4.24			5.75

LC: Liver cirrhosis.

Table 3 Patients progressing to liver cirrhosis during the observation period

Genotype B Age (yr)			Genotype C Age (yr)
At entry	Developmentof LC	Outcome	At entry	Developmentof LC	Outcome
17 M e+	18 e+	24 e-	18 M e+	24 e+	31 e+ dead (HCC)
23 M e+	27 e-	36 e-
28 M e+	30 e+	38 e-
			31 M e+	33 e+	40 e+ dead (hepatic failure)
			31 M e+	39 e+	44 e-
			33 M e+	40 e+	48 e+
			36 M e+	40 e-	46 e-
			38 M e+	45 e-	48 e- dead (HCC)
41 M e-	48 e-	49 e-	41 M e+	43 e+	51 e-
			42 M e+	46 e-	48 e-
			45 M e-	48 e-	49 e- dead (HCC)
58 M e-	64 e-	70 e-	50 M e-	54 e-	57 e-
58 M e-	72 e-	73 e-	50 M e-	52 e-	53 e- dead (hepatic failure)
60 M e-	61 e-	66 e-
66 M e-	70 e-	71 e-	73 F e+	79 e+	90 e+

M: Male; F: Female; e+: HBeAg-positive; e-: HBeAg-negative; LC: Liver cirrhosis; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma.