INTRODUCTION Entecavir (ETV) is a potent inhibitor of hepatitis B virus (HBV) replication. In patients adherent to treatment, virologic remission rates of > 95 % can be maintained with entecavir at 3-5 years. AIM AND METHODS A cohort study was performed, including all subjects who received ETV for chronic hepatitis B, in the South- Eastern Romania. We assessed viral response, HBeAg loss and s...

A substantial proportion of patients with lamivudine-resistant hepatitis B virus (HBV) show suboptimal virologic response during rescue combination treatment with lamivudine plus adefovir. In this randomized active-control trial, 90 patients with serum HBV DNA levels of >2,000 IU/ml after at least 24 weeks of treatment with lamivudine-plus-adefovir therapy for lamivudine-resistant HBV were rand...

Materials and methods We performed a study in the National Institute for Infectious Diseases “Prof. Dr. Matei Bals”, Bucharest, Romania, randomizing patients between two groups initially: therapy with lamivudine 100 mg/day vs. standard of care (no antiviral therapy) and subsequently between three groups: lamivudine, standard of care and entecavir 0.5 mg/day, when this new analogue became availa...

BACKGROUND Entecavir is the drug of choice as first-line treatment for treatment-naive HBV patients. As a result of the high genetic barrier to resistance, treatment failure remains rare, but occurs within 3 years of initiation, suggesting that viral genetic characteristics may provide a fast lane to resistance. One of the main concerns is the long time to viral suppression observed in some (ev...

PURPOSE This study examined 2-year outcome of consecutive therapy using entecavir (ETV) followed by telbivudine (LdT) in subjects with undetectable hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA level and normal alanine aminotransferase level after the initial 6 months of ETV treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty subjects were randomized to continue with ETV or switch to LdT. Significant difference in baseline...

The emergence of entecavir (ETV) resistance is rare, particularly in a longitudinal study. The aim of the present study was to characterize the evolution of ETV-resistant variants during antiviral therapy using entecavir monotherapy followed by ETV-adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) combination therapy. The study included a prospective cohort of 53 consecutive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients. During t...