Antiviral treatment with nucleoside analogues

The patient was a 28-year-old male, neither of his parents had hepatitis B. At the age of 2, he was found to have hepatitis B on physical examination with abnormal liver function, which improved with liver-protective treatment. Since then, he has had chronic major triple-positive disease. In November 2006, due to abnormal liver function, virus 2.5E6, major triplet, he started antiviral treatment with entecavir. 4 months later, liver function was normal, virus quantification was negative, and major triplet was changed to minor triplet. After stopping the drug, the patient’s liver function was normal for a long time, and the five items of hepatitis B were repeatedly checked, showing a small triplet and negative viral quantification. The patient had intermittent application of thymidine and other proprietary Chinese medicines during the period of drug discontinuation, and the duration of drug administration did not exceed 5 months per year. Comment: There are few cases in which nucleoside analogs for chronic hepatitis B can be successfully discontinued without rebound. The literature reports that the probability of rebound within six months after drug discontinuation is more than 50%. This patient was on the drug for a total of 2 years, which is much shorter than the recommended duration of treatment in the 2015 Chinese Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Hepatitis B (total duration of treatment for e antigen-positive chronic hepatitis B is at least 4 years), but has been off the drug for more than 5 years without rebound and continues to be followed up. The reasons why this patient was able to successfully stop the medication cannot be accurately determined: 1. The patient is not a mother-to-child transmission, and both parents have not been tested for hepatitis B multiple times. (However, the patient was also infected in early childhood, and it is possible that the immune tolerance is weak.) 2. The patient applied immunomodulators including thymidine and herbal medicine for 4-5 months per year. It cannot be determined if this is related. The issue of discontinuation after application of nucleoside analogues for chronic hepatitis B is a high concern for both doctors and patients, and there is no good way to foresee whether the patient will rebound after discontinuation of the drug. This case is shared today for your reference. We also hope to collect more cases of successful drug discontinuation in order to summarize our experience and provide more help to patients with chronic hepatitis B.