Source: Rheumatology  |  Posted 9 years ago

Long-term follow-up reveals efficacy of interferon alpha (IFN) therapy in children with chronic hepatitis B.

Investigators from the Department of Paediatric Infectious Diseases at the Medical University in Wroclaw, Poland, studied 130 boys and 63 girls with chronic hepatitis B. The children ranged in age from 1.5 to 17 years.

The children were examined at baseline then given IFN therapy for 20 weeks with follow-up examinations at 6, 12, and 20 weeks, 6, 18 and 24 months.

Elimination of hepatitis B core antigen improved from 29.6% at 20 weeks to 63.9% at 24 months. This improvement was especially pronounced in girls, the investigators report.

Hepatitis B core antigen and hepatitis B surface antigen elimination was positively correlated with IFN/m