[Short-term efficacy of adefovir dipivoxil as an add-on therapy in the pegylated IFNalpha-2a treatment for HBeAg positive chronic hepatitis B patients].

OBJECTIVE

To investigate whether the combination therapy of pegylated IFNalpha-2a plus adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) improve the efficacy of the treatment in CHB patients with HBeAg positive or not.

METHODS

57 CHB patients with HBeAg positive received 48-week pegylated IFNalpha-2a therapy were enrolled into this study. If serum HBV DNA levels exceeded 1000 copies/ml at week 24, the patients were assigned to group A (pegylated IFN-alpha2a plus ADV, 21 cases) or group B (pegylated IFNalpha-2a only, 14 cases); otherwise, they received the unceasing monotherapy of pegylated IFNalpha-2a (group C, 22 cases).

RESULTS

At week 48, HBeAg seroconversion rates were 23.8%, 28.6% and 63.6% (A vs C,P = 0.014), but rates of aminotransferases normalization and HBV DNA suppression (< 1000 copies/ml) were not statistically significant among three groups. But during week 24 to week 48, rates of HBeAg seroconversion, aminotransferases normalization and HBV DNA suppression were also not statistically significant between group A and B. But amplitude of DNA drop in group A was much more than that in group B (2.60 +/- 1.37 vs 0.86 +/- 2.09, P = 0.005).

CONCLUSION

An ADV add-on therapy in pegylated IFNalpha-2a treatment seems able to improve the inhibition of HBV DNA in chronic hepatitis B patients with HBeAg positive. It requires a large, double-blind, randomized clinical trial to further provent.