According to all International HBV guidelines, entecavir (ETV) is a recommended treatment or NUC-naive patients (never treateted before) but its long-term effectiveness in field practice is unknown.
376 consecutive NUC-naive patients with chronic epatitis B were recruited in 17 Liver Units in Italy and treated with UTV 0.5mg for 21 months (5-24). Age was 58 years, 75% male, 83% HBeAAG neg, 47% cirrhotics. Liver function tests and HBV DNA were performer every 3 months;RT resi stance pattern was looked for by INNO-LipA V2-3 at baseline and every 6 months in viremic patients. The study was presented at Liver meeting AASLD in Boston.
“ETV for NUC-naive patients patients treated in field practice for 72 weeks showed high virological response rates, no resi stance, progressive decline of liver stiffness and prevention of liver complòications. However, one fourth of high viral patients showed partial virological response at week 48, the best management being still unknown”, says Pietro Lampertico, Professor, Gastroenterology Unit, University of Milan, Italy.
