1. Efficacy of steroid withdrawal and low-dose interferon treatment in chronic active hepatitis B
- Author
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Daniel Lavanchy, Pierre-Jean Malé, Jürg Reichen, Martin Schmid, Philipp C. Frei, and Leonardo Bianchi
- Subjects
Hepatitis B virus ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Hepatology ,biology ,business.industry ,Alpha interferon ,medicine.disease_cause ,Placebo ,biology.organism_classification ,Gastroenterology ,law.invention ,Randomized controlled trial ,Hepadnaviridae ,law ,Internal medicine ,Multicenter trial ,Immunology ,medicine ,Lost to follow-up ,business ,Interferon alfa ,medicine.drug - Abstract
Fifty-six patients with biopsy-proven, chronic active hepatitis B were included in a multi-center, randomized trial comparing steroid withdrawal followed by 1.5 MU recombinant interferon alpha 2b (Intron ® ) with placebo withdrawal followed by either 1.5 or 5 MU interferon. The patients were equally distributed between the treatment groups with respect to biochemical and histologic activity as well as with respect to DNA levels and quantitative liver function tests. One patient was lost to follow up. After 1 year of treatment, 10/18, 13/19 and 11/18 patients had lost hepatitis B virus DNA in the three groups, respectively (non-significant). Transaminase levels were normal in 27/34 of the responders but in only 4/21 of the non-responders ( p
- Published
- 1994
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