Fig. 1.

A follow-up study of liver histology on the patients with chronic hepatitis B treated with lamivudine. (a) Four patients whose alanine aminotransferase levels were more than 2 times the upper limit of normal showed no improvement in liver fibrosis at the second liver biopsy. (b) Nine patients whose alanine aminotransferase levels were less than 2 times the upper limit of normal demonstrated an improvement in liver fibrosis at the second liver biopsy even if the serum HBV DNA was positive. Another 3 patients whose degree of fibrosis was diagnosed to be F1 at the first liver biopsy showed no change in liver fibrosis