Baseline hepatitis B surface antigen and cirrhosis predict extended interferon therapy in chronic hepatitis B: A retrospective study

Table 1 Clinical characteristics of the study population, mean ± SD/n (%)

Characteristic	Before PSM				After PSM
	Overall (n = 688)	Training cohort (n = 274)	Validation cohort (n = 414)	P value	Overall (n = 375)	Training cohort (n = 196)	Validation cohort (n = 179)	P value
Age (year)	40.82 ± 9.19	41.38 ± 8.69	40.44 ± 9.49	0.189	40.91 ± 8.91	41.15 ± 7.88	40.65 ± 9.94	0.588
Gender				0.790				0.805
Male	421 (61.19)	166 (60.58)	255 (61.59)		228 (60.80)	118 (60.20)	110 (61.45)
Female	267 (38.81)	108 (39.42)	159 (38.41)		147 (39.20)	78 (39.80)	69 (38.55)
Cirrhosis				0.085				0.135
(-)	594 (89.32)	238 (86.86)	356 (91.05)		333 (89.04)	170 (86.73)	163 (91.57)
(+)	71 (10.68)	36 (13.14)	35 (8.95)		41 (10.96)	26 (13.27)	15 (8.43)
IFN treatment course (week)				0.673				0.988
Median (Q1, Q3)	24.36 (15.00, 40.71)	24.00 (16.00, 42.00)	25.00 (15.00, 39.71)		24.14 (15.00, 40.00)	24.00 (16.00, 39.25)	24.86 (14.14, 40.71)
	32.0 ± 23.15	32.54 ± 23.68	31.77 ± 22.82		31.82 ± 22.35	31.83 ± 23.02	31.80 ± 21.67
IFN group				0.550				0.487
< 48	555 (80.67)	218 (79.56)	337 (81.40)		301 (80.27)	160 (81.63)	141 (78.77)
≥ 48	133 (19.33)	56 (20.44)	77 (18.60)		74 (19.73)	36 (18.37)	38 (21.23)
HBeAg				0.001				0.417
(-)	590 (86.64)	247 (91.82)	343 (83.25)		338 (90.13)	179 (91.33)	159 (88.83)
(+)	91 (13.36)	22 (8.18)	69 (16.75)		37 (9.87)	17 (8.67)	20 (11.17)
HBV DNA (log10 copies/mL)	1.66 ± 1.80	1.39 ± 1.93	1.88 ± 1.66	0.001	1.78 ± 1.69	1.65 ± 1.85	1.92 ± 1.48	0.123
HBsAg (IU/mL), median (Q1, Q3)	44.25 (3.39, 334.78)	37.08 (2.91, 401.76)	52.35 (3.95, 314.81)	0.755	49.54 (4.54, 330.75)	47.80 (5.56, 469.24)	51.78 (3.99, 235.90)	0.943
HBsAg (log10 IU/mL)	1.53 ± 1.31	1.51 ± 1.27	1.55 ± 1.34	0.687	1.56 ± 1.29	1.61 ± 1.28	1.50 ± 1.30	0.412
12-week HBsAg (log10 IU/mL), median (Q1, Q3)	-0.30 (-1.68, 1.28)	-0.26 (-1.51, 1.37)	-0.30 (-1.96, 1.15)	0.270	-0.29 (-1.51, 1.23)	-0.24 (-1.51, 1.37)	-0.30 (-1.82, 0.72)	0.246
HBsAg decline at 12 weeks (log10 IU/mL), median (Q1, Q3)	1.46 (0.51, 2.74)	1.42 (0.51, 2.55)	1.51 (0.53, 2.87)	0.156	1.46 (0.60, 2.80)	1.58 (0.59, 2.72)	1.43 (0.62, 2.90)	0.485
ALT (U/L), median (Q1, Q3)	24.00 (16.00, 41.00)	23.30 (15.00, 36.00)	24.55 (17.00, 42.85)	0.236	24.00 (16.45, 39.00)	24.00 (15.93, 37.38)	23.00 (17.00, 40.50)	0.298
TBiL (μmol/L)	16.19 ± 10.87	16.70 ± 10.35	15.87 ± 11.19	0.331	16.60 ± 11.46	16.79 ± 10.60	16.41 ± 12.35	0.749
ALP (U/L)	77.30 ± 31.11	72.88 ± 31.03	80.67 ± 30.78	0.002	76.25 ± 32.06	74.46 ± 33.45	78.21 ± 30.44	0.258
GGT (U/L), median (Q1, Q3)	21.00 (14.00, 34.00)	20.00 (14.00, 30.00)	22.00 (15.00, 35.00)	0.807	21.00 (14.00, 34.50)	21.50 (14.00, 32.25)	21.00 (15.00, 36.00)	0.557
ALB				0.067				0.486
< 40	637 (95.50)	255 (97.33)	382 (94.32)		359 (95.73)	189 (96.43)	170 (94.97)
≥ 40	30 (4.50)	7 (2.67)	23 (5.68)		16 (4.27)	7 (3.57)	9 (5.03)
WBC (109/L), median (Q1, Q3)	5.39 (4.30, 6.55)	5.51 (4.72, 6.66)	5.28 (4.20, 6.52)	0.155	5.43 (4.43, 6.50)	5.51 (4.57, 6.66)	5.30 (4.40, 6.47)	0.730
HB (g/L)	146.18 ± 21.76	146.02 ± 25.34	146.28 ± 19.13	0.880	145.50 ± 23.51	146.28 ± 26.96	144.64 ± 19.07	0.502
PLT (109/L)	208.52 ± 67.10	222.42 ± 66.80	199.51 ± 65.83	< 0.001	211.83 ± 60.98	215.57 ± 57.89	207.73 ± 64.10	0.214

PSM: Propensity score matching; IFN: Interferon; Q1: 1st quartile; Q3: 3st quartile; HBeAg: Hepatitis B envelope antigen; HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen; ALT: Alanine aminotransferase; TBiL: Total bilirubin; ALP: Alkaline phosphatase; GGT: Gamma-glutamyl transferase; ALB: Albumin; WBC: White blood cell; HB: Hemoglobin; PLT: Platelet.