Patient characteristics at entry to the study
| Characteristic | Treatment group | Total (n=226) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lam/interferon (n=75) | Interferon (n=69) | Lamivudine (n=82) | |||
| Age (years) (median (range)) | 31 (15–60) | 32 (16–70) | 30 (16–69) | 31 (15–70) | |
| Sex (% male) | 71 | 81 | 71 | 74 | |
| Weight (kg) | 72.0 (42–115) | 71.0 (45–115) | 68.5 (45–118) | 70.4 (42–118) | |
| Ethnicity (%) | |||||
| Caucasian | 59 | 65 | 65 | 63 | |
| Asian-Oriental | 31 | 28 | 29 | 29 | |
| ALT (×ULN) | |||||
| Median (range) | 2.2 (0.8–26.1) | 2.4 (0.8–10.1) | 2.6 (0.8–19.2) | 2.4 (0.8–26.1) | |
| Mean (SD) | 3.2 (3.4) | 3.1 (2.1) | 3.3 (2.8) | 3.2 (2.8) | |
| <1×ULN (No (%)) | 4 (5) | 3 (4) | 4 (5) | 11 (5) | |
| HBV DNA (pg/ml) | |||||
| Median (range) | 94.0 (1.5–786) | 109.0 (1.5–1322) | 136.0 (1.5–2264) | 113.5 (1.5–2264) | |
| Mean log10(SD) | 1.74 (0.75) | 1.78 (0.77) | 2.04 (0.66) | 1.86 (0.73) | |
| <3 pg/ml | 4 (5) | 9 (13) | 2 (2) | 11 (5) | |
| Positive for HBeAg (No (%)) | 72 (96) | 68 (99) | 81 (99) | 221 (98) | |
| Positive for HBV DNA and HbeAg (No (%)) | 68 (91) | 64 (93) | 80 (98) | 212 (94) | |
| Knodell HAI score | |||||
| Median (range) | 4 (0–14) | 4 (0–13) | 4 (0–12) | 4 (0–14) | |
| <2 | 8 (11) | 6 (9) | 11 (5) | 18 (8) | |
| Evidence of cirrhosis (No (%)) | 3 (4) | 8 (12) | 5 (6) | 16 (7) | |
Evidence of cirrhosis is indicated by a score of 4 on the fibrosis component of Knodell histological activity index score. HBV DNA values below 3 pg/ml (lower limit of detection) have been set to 1.5 pg/ml in the calculation of summary statistics.