Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Chronic Hepatitis B (CHB) infection is a severe health problem worldwide. It is challenging to achieve a complete cure for CHB as the currently available antiviral treatments cannot eradicate the covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) in the infected hepatocytes. Detecting cccDNA is an important goal to strive for when investigating the effectiveness of available therapies and developing novel treatments. Hepatitis B virus RNA (HBV-RNA) is a relatively new serum biomarker that correlates with cccDNA. We studied HBV-RNA kinetics and their potential role as a predictor of treatment response in HBeAg-negative CHB patients. HBV-RNA showed a greater decline in treatment responders compared to non-responders early on, at week 12 of treatment. Levels above 1700 c/mL (3.2 log10 c/mL) had a negative predictive value for treatment response of 91% at week 12 and 93% at week 24 (P=0.01). In conclusion, HBV-RNA demonstrated a rapid and significant decline associated with treatment response during long-term follow-up
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Mina Farag
Language: English
Topic: Hepatitis B Virus Studies
Subfield: Epidemiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2997731189