Antiviral treatment of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. I. Changes in viral markers with interferon combined with adenine arabinoside

Twenty patients with chronic active hepatitis and 12 patients with chronic persistent hepatitis associated with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection were treated with human leukocyte interferon or adenine arabinoside alone or in combination. With interferon alone, four of 16 patients showed a permanent disappearance of HBV-associated DNA polymerase (DNAP) activity from serum. Of six patients treated with adenine arabinoside alone, only one patient became permanently DNAP negative. With a regimen of multiple cycles of combined interferon and adenine arabinoside, seven of 16 male patients became permanently DNAP negative. Of 69 patients who met the criteria for admission to the program, spontaneous decreases in DNAP activity without treatment were observed in only 9% during a mean observation period of 10 months. In general, patients with chronic active hepatitis, those who are female, and those with a history of recent steroid therapy responded to the antiviral agents significantly better than did the other patients.