Clinical utility of hepatitis B surface antigen kinetics in treatment-naïve chronic hepatitis B patients during long-term entecavir therapy

Table 3 Univariate and multivariate analyses of factors associated with virological response in HBeAg-negative non-cirrhotic patients

Factors	Univariate analysis			Multivariate analysis
	HR	95%CI	P value	HR	95%CI	P value
Sex (female vs male)	1.14	0.72-1.81	0.57	1.39	0.78-2.47	0.27
Age (yr)	0.99	0.97-1.01	0.53	0.99	0.96-1.01	0.31
HBV genotype (B vs C)1	1.17	0.70-1.93	0.55	1.34	0.79-2.30	0.28
ALT (× ULN)	1.00	0.96-1.04	0.94	0.99	0.94-1.04	0.65
HBV DNA (≤ 4 vs > 4 log IU/mL)	1.33	0.73-2.40	0.35	0.63	0.19-2.07	0.45
HBsAg (< 2.4 vs ≥ 2.4 log IU/mL)	3.95	2.19-7.12	< 0.001	3.12	1.58-6.19	0.001

¹None of the HBeAg-negative non-cirrhotic patients had a mixed HBV genotype B and C infection. ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; CI: Confidence interval; HR: Hazard ratio; HBeAg: Hepatitis B e antigen; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; ULN: Upper limit of normal.