Lamivudine monotherapy in children with immune-tolerant chronic hepatitis B virus.
We investigated the efficacy of lamivudine treatment in inducing a primary and sustained response in naive pediatric patients with immune-tolerant chronic hepatitis B viral (HBV) infection. Lamivudine was used (maximum 100 mg/day) for an average of 35 months (16-60 months) for 17 patients, while 6 patients were untreated. All the treated patients became HBV-DNA negative in the twelfth month of therapy with an average of 7 months, however none of them had a sustained virological response. They all became HBV-DNA positive by the twentieth month on average. One patient had significant improvement in liver histology. No side effects were observed. Spontaneous HBV-DNA clearance or HBe seroconversion was obtained in none of the untreated cases. This study suggests that lamivudine cannot induce complete viral control in HBV pediatric immune-tolerant patients.
Artan
R
R
Akdeniz University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition, Antalya, Turkey. artan@akdeniz.edu.tr
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004279:DNA, Viral / Q000032:analysis; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens / Q000276:immunology*; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007108:Immune Tolerance; D019259:Lamivudine / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008111:Liver Function Tests; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D004279:DNA, Viral; D006514:Hepatitis B Surface Antigens; D019259:Lamivudine