Clinical observation of treatment of chronic hepatitis B patients with lamivudine / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To appraise the clinical therapeutic effects of lamivudine in patients with chronic hepatitis B, and the recurrence of the disease after withdrawal of the drug. Method 122 patients with chronic hepatitis B treated with lamivudine were followed-up for over half a year after withdrawal. Result It was shown that, among the 9 cases in immunological tolerance stage and received lamivudine treatment, 4 showed effective result and ineffective in 5. All the 4 patients with effective result recurred within 6 months after lamivudine withdrawal. Among the 113 patients in non-immunological tolerance, 13 showed notable effective result (11.50%), 90 effective (79.65%) and 10 showed ineffective result (8.85%), respectively. The disease in 11 patients showing effective result recurred during the treatment. The rate of recurrence was 53.85% and 87.34% respectively in patients with notable effective and effective results. The level of ALT before lamivudine treatment showed no significant difference between the patients with abrupt and gradual withdrawal of lamivudine treatment, but it was significantly different after lamivudine withdrawal. The rate of recurrence showed no significant difference between patients with abrupt and gradual withdrawal of the drug. Conclusion The therapeutic effect of lamivudine is poor in immunological tolerant patients. Patients with chronic hepatitis B are likely to recur after lamivudine withdrawal. Lamivudine should be given for a long-term to inhibit persistent HBVDNA replication.