Predictive value of platelet to lymphocyte ratio for early virological response in patients with genotype C hepatitis B virus infection who were treated with Entecavir / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the prognostic value of platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR) for early virological response in Entecavir (ETV)-treated chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with genotype C infection.Methods Ninety-one genotype C CHB patients with HBV DNA≥1×105 copies/mL were treated with ETV (0.5 mg/d) for 10-13 days.The correlation between PLR and viral load decline was evaluated by Pearson or Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.Stepwise linear regression analysis was used to establish the prediction model of virological response.Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves were used to evaluate the predictive value of PLR for early virological response in ETV-treated patients with genotype C hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.Results After 10-13 days of ETV treatment, HBV DNA decreased ≥1×lg copies/mL from baseline in 89 cases of the 91 patients, while HBV DNA declined ≥2×lg copies/mL in 65 patients and 4 patients achieved HBV DNA<500 copies/mL.HBV DNA decline was positively correlated with baseline PLR levels (r=0.235 09, P<0.05).After adjustment for age, gender, Hepatitis B e Antigen (HBeAg), and treatment days, HBV DNA decline was still positively correlated with baseline PLR levels (r=0.220 26, P<0.05).Area under curve (AUC) of prediction model including age , baseline aspartate transaminase (AST) and HBV DNA was 0.759 (95% CI 0.660-0.859, P<0.01).After adding PLR to the prediction model, the AUC was 0.780 (95% CI 0.685-0.875, P<0.01).Conclusions PLR is predictive to early virological response in ETV-treated CHB patients with genotype C infection.Higher baseline PLR level indicates a better virological response.PLR monitoring should be recommended in CHB patients with antiviral treatment in clinical practice.