Table 4.
Pretreatment clinical and virological characteristics between hepatitis B virus DNA-negative and -positive group at year 2 during entecavir therapy
| Characteristics | HBV DNA-negative group | HBV DNA-positive group | P value | |
| (n = 19) | (n = 31) | Univariate analysis | Multivariate analysis | |
| Age | 51 (31-73) | 52 (32-80) | NS | |
| Gender (male:female) | 12:7 | 20:11 | NS | |
| Disease (CH:LC/HCC) | 17:2 | 27:4 | NS | |
| ALT (IU/L) | 36 (12-366) | 108 (13-602) | 0.03 | NS |
| Platelet counts (× 104/mL) | 19.0 (8.8-35.1) | 17.8 (3.4-26.8) | NS | |
| Albumin (mg/dL) | 4.35 (3.84-4.85) | 4.14 (2.28-4.72) | NS | |
| HBV genotype (B:C:others) | 0:19:0 | 0:31: | NS | |
| HBeAg status (positive:negative) | 3:16 | 21:10 | < 0.01 | NS |
| HBV DNA (log copies/mL) | 5.1 (3.1-7.4) | 7.6 (3.7-8.8) | < 0.01 | NS |
| qHBsAg level (log IU/mL) | 3.31 (1.90-4.08) | 4.20 (3.06-4.87) | < 0.01 | 0.03 |
| HBcrAg level (log U/mL) | 3.45 (3.0-> 6.8) | > 6.8 (3.0-> 6.8) | NS | |
| Pre-C mutation (%) | 75.0 | 43.3 | NS | |
| Core promoter mutation (%) | 37.5 | 60.0 | NS | |
CH: Chronic hepatitis; LC: Liver cirrhosis; HCC: Hepatocellular carcinoma; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen; qHBsAg: Quantitation of hepatitis B surface antigen level; HBcrAg: HBV core-related antigen; NS: Not significant.