The dgree of HBV suppression with 24 week lamivudine-treatment in HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B patients predicts the efficacy of the treatment at week 52

Objective To investigate the possibilities of an association between the degrees of HBV suppression with lamivudine-treatment at week 24 and week 52 in HBeAg-pesitive chronic hepatitis B patients and to find a useful predictor for treatment efficacy.Methods 96 patients with HBeAg-positive chronic hepatitis B were treated with lamivudine 100 mg per day for 52 week.They were categoized into2 groups according to their serum HBVDNA levels(copies/ml) at week 24:HBVDNA seroconversion group(＜103 copiea/ml)and HBVDNA non-sercoversion group (＞10 3 copies/ml).We retrospectively analyed the treatment efficacy of two groups.Results At week 52,the rate of HBVDNA undetectable and HBeAg seroconversion and ALT normalization in HBVDNA seroconversion group were higher than that in HBVDNA non-seroconversion group,but the rate of YMDD mutation was lower.The difference was significant in two groups.Conclusion HBVDNA PCR-undetectable at week 24 in lamivudine-treated HBeAg-positive hepatitis B patients suggests a better efficacy and lower viral resistance at week52.The dgree of supression of HBV at 24 weeks may be used as a predictor of one year outcome. Key words: Lamivudine;  HepatitisB; chronic;  HBVDNA;  HBeAg