Table 5.
Comparison of baseline characteristics between patients with significant or without improvement in fibrosis after long-term antiviral therapy
| With significant improvement1 | Without improvement | P-value | |
| n | 9 | 18 | |
| Male gender, n (%) | 6 (66.7) | 13 (72.2) | 0.7657 |
| Age (mean ± SD), yr | 42.1 ± 11.6 | 42.9 ± 9.8 | 0.8557 |
| log10 HBV DNA (mean ± SD), IU/mL | 7.3 ± 1.0 | 5.9 ± 1.5 | 0.0175 |
| ALT (mean ± SD), U/L | 140 ± 72 | 99 ± 121 | 0.0270 |
| HBeAg positivity, n (%) | 7 (77.8) | 10 (55.6) | 0.2597 |
| Median grade (range) | 11(3-14) | 9 (0-13) | 0.2778 |
| Median stage (range) | 5 (3-6) | 3.5 (2-5) | 0.2717 |
| Duration of treatment (mean ± SD), mo | 44 ± 11 | 41 ± 18 | 0.3956 |
1
Significant improvement in fibrosis was defined as an Ishak fibrosis score of 0 or 1 post-treatment. HBV: Hepatitis B virus; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen.