Nucleoside/nucleotide analogues in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B infection during pregnancy: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND

Women of childbearing age who have developed chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection, especially HBeAg-positive highly viraemic pregnant women, are largely responsible for the familial transmission of the infection. Therefore, choosing the most effective and safest antiviral medications to manage pregnant CHB patients is of crucial importance.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The PubMed and Scopus databases were searched through September 2017, for all the journal articles possessing original results regarding treatment of CHB pregnant women with any nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) therapies, including lamivudine (LAM), adefovir (ADV), entecavir (ETV), telbivudine (LdT), and tenofovir (TDF).

RESULTS

After the primary search, 882 studies were recognized, and updating the searching results, 41 journal articles with original data were investigated, involving 3874 newborn infants from mothers with CHB, and their mothers completed follow-up until the delivery. The most important basic data and results regarding the efficacy of drugs, the rate of vertical transmission, safety issues associated with pairs of mothers and infants, median levels of HBV DNA, breastfeeding data, and rate of rate of vaccination success were collected. Moreover, possible key conclusion, recommendations, and learned lessons were discussed. Among the evaluated NAs, all LAM was efficient and safe. LdT was found to be very effective but had some safety concerns. In contrast, TDF had the advantages of both effectiveness and safety.

CONCLUSION

According to data in the literature, initiation of TDF at the trimester of pregnancy in combination with immunoprophylaxis to prevent mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of CHB infection is strongly recommended as well as successful immunization of CHB pregnant women by anti-HBV vaccines.