Figure 1 Mean hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA in patients with HBeAg relapse and sustained response after PEG‐IFN α‐2b alone or in combination with lamivudine. Among patients treated with PEG‐IFN α‐2b monotherapy, the decline in HBV DNA was more pronounced in sustained responders than in relapsers (A). This difference was, however, not observed in patients treated with PEG‐IFN α‐2b and lamivudine combination therapy (B). Mean HBV DNA was comparable in sustained responders and relapsers at baseline in both treatment groups. In patients treated with PEG‐IFN α‐2b alone, decline in HBV DNA was 4.8 log₁₀ copies/ml for sustained responders compared with 3.8 log₁₀ copies/ml for patients with relapse at the end of treatment (p = 0.30). The decline in HBV DNA was 5.8 log₁₀ copies/ml for all patients in the combination therapy group at the end of treatment. In both treatment groups mean HBV DNA was significantly higher in relapsers than in sustained responders at week 78 (9.2 log₁₀ vs 4.6 log₁₀ for monotherapy, and 7.7 log₁₀vs 3.7 log₁₀ for combination therapy, p<0.001).