Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of chronic hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive patients prior to successful antiviral therapy, by therapy group

	IFN (n=49)	LAM (n=59)	IFN+LAM (n=22)
Sex, male	36 (73%)	42 (71%)	14 (64%)
Age (y)*	41 (16)	37 (12)	43 (15)
Ethnicity
Caucasian, other	39 (80%)	19 (33%)	18 (82%)
Asian	10 (20%)	39 (66%)	3 (14%)
Log HBV DNA*†	8.4 (1.0)	8.7 (0.8)	8.5 (0.8)
ALT (×ULN)*	4.3 (2.4)	4.5 (4.2)	3.3 (2.5)
Previous therapy
IFN	9 (18%)	26 (44%)	8 (36%)
LAM	0 (0%)	4 (7%)	1 (5%)
Type of study
RCT	46 (94%)	10 (17%)	15 (68%)
Cohort	3 (6%)	49 (83%)	7 (32%)

Means (SD)

†Corrected for the HBV DNA test used: Abbott or bDNA pg/ml are converted to Eurohep genome equivalents/ml (g eq/ml).

IFN, interferon; LAM, lamivudine; HBV, hepatitis B virus; HBeAg, hepatitis B e antigen; ALT, alanine aminotransferase; ULN, upper limit of normal; RCT, randomised controlled trial.