Short-term efficacy and security of telbivudine as a sequential therapy in the pegylated IFNα-2a treatment for HBeAg positive chronic hepatitis B patients

Objective To investigate short-term efficacy and security of telbivudine as a sequential therapy in the HBeAg positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with pegylated IFNα-2a treatment failure.Methods 27 CHB patients with HBeAg positive and HBV DNA detectable after a 48-week pegylated IFNα-2a therapy were enrolled into this study,and were assigned to group A,with telbivudine as a sequential therapy.54 CHB patients with HBeAg positive were assigned to group B,with telbivudine as a naive treatment.To assessment the efficacy and security of telbivudine at week 48.Results At week 12,the rates of aminotransferases normalization,HBeAg seroconversion and HBV DNA undetectable (＜ 100 IU/ ml) among the two groups were 59.3％,14.8％,66.7％ vs 75.9％,5.6％,46.3％ respectively.At week 24,the rates among the two groups were 92.6％,25.9％,70.3％ vs 92.6％,7.4％,85.2％,respectively.At week 48,the rates among the two groups were 88.9％,29.6％,81.5％ vs 98.1％,28.0％,83.3％ respectively.All these were not statistically significant.But the rate of HBeAg seroconversion in group A is higher than that in group B.The virological breakthrough rate of group B at week 48 is 14.8％,no virological breakthrough was observed in group A.During the treatment,38.3％ of patients had creatine kinase(CK) elevation,but there was no case stopping treatment for severe adverse effect.Conclusion CHB patients with HBeAg positive after a 48-week pegylated IFNα-2a treatment failure can also achieve the same efficacy and security as the na(i)ve treatment,after receiving telbivudine as a sequential therapy. Key words: Hepatitis B ;  Interferon alfa-2a;  Telbivudine;  Therapy