Hepatitis B surface antigen levels of cessation of nucleos(t)ide analogs associated with virological relapse in hepatitis B surface antigen-negative chronic hepatitis B patients

Table 1 Characteristics of chronic hepatitis B patients with or with no virological relapse n (%)

Factors	Virological relapse (n = 162)	No virological relapse (n = 42)	P value
Age (yr)	36.83 ± 10.51	35.19 ± 9.10	0.357
Gender
Male	95 (58.64)	26 (61.9)	0.332
Female	67 (41.36)	16 (38.1)
Vertical transmission of infection history
Yes	80 (49.38)	21 (50)	0.936
No	82 (50.62)	21 (50)
Time to undetectable HBV DNA	5.01 ± 2.11	4.93 ± 2.96	0.819
Sustained time of antiviral	44.62 ± 8.17	41.21 ± 6.20	0.110
Drugs used
Lamivudine	29 (17.9)	10 (23.81)	0.736
Adefovir	36 (22.22)	11 (26.19)
Telbivudine	25 (12.35)	4 (9.52)
Entecavir	44 (27.16)	10 (23.81)
Lamivudine + Adefovir	28 (17.28)	7 (16.67)
Follow-up time of cessation, mo	8.99 ± 9.38	25.71 ± 2.17	< 0.0001
Level of HBsAg at the end of therapy (IU/L)	4334.179 ± 2493.99	3290.163 ± 2019.79	0.013
Genotype
B	54 (33.33)	12 (28.57)	0.557
C	108 (66.67)	30 (71.43)

HBV: Hepatitis B virus; HBsAg: Hepatitis B surface antigen.

Table 2 Factors associated with virological relapse by Cox regression

Factors	Univariate analysis				Multivariate analysis1
	RR	Wald	95%CI	P value	RR	Wald	95%CI	P value
Age	0.996	0.285	0.981-1.011	0.592	0.996	0.231	0.980-1.012	0.996
Gender
Male	1				1
Female	0.914	0.298	0.662-1.262	0.585	0.956	0.061	0.067-1.364	0.805
Vertical transmission of infection history
Yes	1				1
No	1.064	0.155	0.782-1.448	0.694	1.063	0.139	0.769-1.470	0.71
Time to undetectable HBV DNA	1.041	1.162	0.967-1.121	0.281	1.069	1.644	0.965-1.184	0.2
Sustained time of antiviral	1.022	4.671	1.002-1.042	0.031	1.017	2.17	0.995-1.04	0.141
Drugs used		1.807		0.771		2.018		0.733
Lamivudine	1				1
Adefovir	1.011	0.002	0.614-1.666	0.964	0.834	0.427	0.485-1.436	0.514
Telbivudine	1.333	1.109	0.781-2.278	0.292	1.233	0.494	0.687-2.212	0.482
Entecavir	0.985	0.004	0.620-1.565	0.949	1.112	0.153	0.652-1.898	0.696
Lamivudine + Adefovir	0.991	0.001	0.589-1.667	0.973	0.872	0.228	0.496-1.531	0.633
Level of HBsAg at the end of therapy (LgIU/L)	1.971	6.542	1.172-3.316	0.011	2.041	5.303	1.098-3.194	0.021
Genotype
B	1				1
C	0.942	0.142	0.690-1.285	0.706	0.981	0.014	0.712-1.348	0.905

¹Cox regression, method: enter; If method is “stepwise”, only “Level of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) at the end of therapy” in the equation; RR = 1.971, 95%CI: 1.172-3.316, P = 0.011; 2Log likelihood = 1534.221. HBV: Hepatitis B virus.