Journal article

High end-of-treatment hepatitis B core-related antigen levels predict hepatitis flare after stopping nucleot(s)ide analogue therapy

SJ Hume, DK Wong, MF Yuen, K Jackson, S Bonanzinga, S Vogrin, SAL Hall, GS Burns, PV Desmond, V Sundararajan, D Ratnam, MT Levy, JS Lubel, AJ Nicoll, SI Strasser, W Sievert, MC Ngu, M Sinclair, C Meredith, G Matthews Show all

Liver International | WILEY | Published : 2024

Abstract

Background and Aims: Accurate biomarkers to predict outcomes following discontinuation of nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) therapy are needed. We evaluated serum hepatitis B core-related antigen (HBcrAg) level as a biomarker for predicting outcomes after NA discontinuation. Methods: Patients with HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB) without cirrhosis were enrolled in a prospective trial evaluating clinical outcomes until 96 weeks after NA discontinuation. End of treatment (EOT) and off-treatment levels of serum HBcrAg, HBsAg, HBV RNA and HBV DNA were used to predict key clinical outcomes including hepatitis flare (ALT ≥5 × ULN and HBV DNA > 2000 IU/mL). The SCALE-B score was calculated for th..

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