The effectiveness of nucleoside analogues in chronic hepatitis B patients unresponsive to Interferon therapy: Our clinical trials for one year

We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of nucleoside analogues such as lamivudine, adefovir, entacavir and tenofovir in the patients with chronic hepatitis B who failed to respond to Interferon therapy and develop relapses. A total of 73 patients with hepatitis B who were followed up in hepatitis outpatient clinic in our hospital, subsequently received nucleoside analogues therapy were evaluated retrospectively. The biochemical and virologic response rates were evaluated in 3rd and 12th months and our results were compared with naive patients. There were 29 (39.7%) HBeAg positive and 44 (60.3%) HBeAg negative patients and their mean age were 35.8 (±13.4) years. Thirty-three, 18, 13 and 9 of them received entacavir, tenofovir, lamivudine and adefovir treatment, respectively. In HBeAg negative patients; the early biochemical response and virologic response in 3rd and 12th months were detected as 91% and 98%; as 93% and 73%, respectively. In HBeAg positive patients the early biochemical response and virologic response in 3rd and 12th months were 83% and 97%; as 90% and 48%, respectively. In chronic hepatitis B therapy for those patients nucleoside analogues can be preferred. There are disadvantages such as risk for developing resistance during therapy, reduced HBeAg seroconversion compared to interferons and therapy's ambiguous duration. In our study, in HBeAg negative patients who received nucleoside analogues, in one year of lamuvidin therapy a lower biochemical response was detected compared to other therapies, whereas in HBeAg positive patients in one year of tenofovir therapy the virologic response was higher than other therapies.