Background: The impact of hepatic steatosis (HS) on treatment response following nucleos(t)ide analogue (NA) treatment for chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients has not been clearly elucidated. We aimed to investigate the difference in HBeAg seroclearance between NA-treated HBeAg-positive CHB patients with and without HS.
Methods: We retrospectively recruited HBeAg-positive CHB patients receiving liver biopsy and NA monotherapy. The baseline clinical characteristics and cumulative incidence of HBeAg seroclearance were compared between patients with and without HS and age/gender-matched subgroup analysis was performed.
Results: A total of 196 patients were enrolled from 2003 April to 2016 October. The mean age was 39.6 ± 11.2 years, 142 (72.4%) were males and 94 (48%) had histological evidence of HS. Median treatment duration and follow-up period were 24.3 months and 54.9 months, respectively. HBeAg seroclearance was achieved in 56/102 (54.9%) and 54/94 (57.4%) patients with and without HS, respectively (p = 0.830). The 5-year cumulative incidence of HBeAg seroclearance in patients with and without HS was 62.8 and 67.7% in overall population (p = 0.398) and 62.4 and 66.9% in age/gender-matched subgroups (p = 0.395), respectively. The rate of HBeAg seroclearance was comparable between patients with or without HS in different NA monotherapy (all p > 0.05).
Conclusions: HS had no significant impact on HBeAg seroclearance in HBeAg-positive CHB patients with NA monotherapy during long-term follow-up.
Keywords: Chronic hepatitis B; HBeAg seroclearance; Hepatic steatosis; Nucleos(t)ide analogue treatment.