Study on 48-week treatment of entecavir in patients with decompensated hepatitis B-induced cirrhosis

Objective TO study the efficacy and safety of entecavir in patients with decompensated hepatitis B cirrhosis for 48 weeks. Methods Ninety six patients with decompensated hepatitis B cirrhosis were randomized to receive entecavir (n=48) or conventional therapy (n=48) for 48 weeks. The changes were observed at 24 th and 48th week,including virological and biochemical markers. Results The HBV DNA less rates were 73.9% at week 24 and 85.7% at week 48,the normal ALT rates were 84.8% and 88.0%,much higher than that in control group(P0.01);Child-Pugh score was lower than in pretreatment and in control group(P0.05). Conclusions Entecavir can inhibit the replication of HBV in cirrhosis resulting from chronic hepatitis B,and reduce the level of HBV DNA,improve the liver function,and decrease the Child-Pugh score.