Treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis B virus infect ion with lamivudine combined with famciclovir / 中华实验和临床病毒学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To evaluate the clinical efficacy of combined treatment with lamivudine and famciclovir on chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Ninety patients with chronic HBV infection were divided into 3 groups. Group one had 28 patients and was treated with combination of lamivudine (0.1 g/d, PO) and famciclovir (1.5 g/d,PO) for 24 weeks. Group two and three had 30 and 32 cases, respectively, and were treated with lamivudine 100 mg/day PO and famciclovir (1.5 g/d,PO) alone. All the patients had positive markers of HBsAg, HBeAg and anti-HBcAg in serum assayed by ELISA and of HBV DNA tested by PCR.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Three strategies of treatment had no different effects on the change of patients' ALT levels. The serum HBV DNA became negative after treatment in 89.3% (25/28) of patients treated with combination of lamivudine and famciclovir, 66.7% (20/30) of patients treated with lamivudine, and 40.6% (13/32) of patients treated with famciclovir. The rate of serum HBeAg loss in 3 groups were 28.6% (8/28), 23.3% (7/30) and 21.9% (7/32), respectively.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>The combination treatment of lamivudine and famciclovir for chronic HBV infection is safer than and superior to that of either drug alone.</p>