Meta-Analysis
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2017. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Hepatol. Feb 28, 2017; 9(6): 333-342
Published online Feb 28, 2017. doi: 10.4254/wjh.v9.i6.333
Vitamin E for the treatment of children with hepatitis B e antigen-positive chronic hepatitis: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Sirio Fiorino, Maria Letizia Bacchi-Reggiani, Paolo Leandri, Elisabetta Loggi, Pietro Andreone
Sirio Fiorino, Paolo Leandri, Unità Operativa di Medicina Interna C, Ospedale Maggiore, AUSL Bologna, 40100 Bologna, Italy
Maria Letizia Bacchi-Reggiani, Unità Operativa Malattie Cardiovascolari, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna, Policlinico Sant’Orsola-Malpighi, 40100 Bologna, Italy
Elisabetta Loggi, Pietro Andreone, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche, Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Bologna, Policlinico Sant’Orsola-Malpighi, 40100 Bologna, Italy
Author contributions: Fiorino S conceived the study, coordinated and supervised the search activity, evaluated the quality of the selected studies, wrote the final draft of the manuscript and checked the accuracy of data collection; Bacchi-Reggiani ML and Andreone P extracted and tabulated all relevant data from the included studies by means of a standardized method, evaluated the quality of the selected studies; Bacchi-Reggiani ML also analyzed the data; Leandri P and Loggi E performed the literature search, identified and screened the articles by consulting the above-reported database and evaluated the quality of the selected studies; Andreone P commented on drafts of the manuscript and was responsible for the final approval of the manuscript; all authors approved the final version of the article, including the authorship list.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Nothing to declare.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Sirio Fiorino, MD, Unità Operativa di Medicina Interna C, Ospedale Maggiore, AUSL Bologna, Largo Nigrisoli 2, 40100 Bologna, Italy. sirio.fiorino@ausl.bologna.it
Telephone: +39-5-16478656 Fax: +39-5-13172993
Received: October 3, 2016
Peer-review started: October 8, 2016
First decision: November 10, 2016
Revised: December 24, 2016
Accepted: January 16, 2017
Article in press: January 18, 2017
Published online: February 28, 2017
Processing time: 146 Days and 13.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Treatment of chronic hepatitis B in children is still an area of uncertainty. Vitamin E, based on immunostimulatory anti-inflammatory activity, has been evaluated in the treatment of pediatric hepatitis B virus infection. These few experiences seem to be encouraging as they suggest a potential role of vitamin E in inducing HBeAg seroconversion, but they need to be confirmed in well-designed and adequately-sized trials.