Hepatitis B core-related antigen dynamics and risk of subsequent clinical relapses after nucleos(t)ide analog cessation.

ABSTRACT:

Background/aims

Finite nucleos(t)ide analog (NA) therapy has been proposed as an alternative treatment strategy for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), but biomarkers for post-treatment monitoring are limited. We investigated whether measuring hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) after NA cessation may stratify the risk of subsequent clinical relapse (CR).

Methods

This retrospective multicenter analysis enrolled adults with CHB who were prospectively monitored after discontinuing entecavir or tenofovir with negative HBeAg and undetectable HBV DNA at the end of treatment (EOT). Patients with cirrhosis or malignancy were excluded. CR was defined as serum alanine aminotransferase > two times the upper limit of normal with recurrent viremia. We applied time-dependent Cox proportiona

SUBMITTER: Tsai YN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10776300 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature