INTERFERON TREATMENT OF CHRONIC ACTIVE HEPATITIS-B - EFFECT OF A 6-MONTH TREATMENT REGIMEN

In this study of 17 patients with chronic active hepatitis B, the loss of hepatitis B virus DNA, the return to normal of alanine aminotransf erase activities, and histological improvement after six months' treat ment with 3 million units three times weekly with interferon alfa-2b, was achieved in 40% of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) positive/anti HBe negative patients, and 41.66% of HBeAg negative/anti HBe positive pat ients. The reappearance of hepatitis B virus DNA was seen in most pati ents when treatment was stopped, although a higher percentage of HBeAg positive/anti HBe negative patients (20%) had a sustained loss of hep atitis B virus DNA, return to normal alanine aminotransferase activiti es, and histological improvement compared with HBeAg negative/anti HBe positive patients (8.3%).