Muhammad Humayun, Faizur Rehman, Intikhab Alam, Najeebul Haq.
Seroconversion of HBeAg in chronic hepatitis "B" Lamivudine vs placebo.
J Med Sci Jan ;11(1):17-20.

Chronic Hepatitis "B" with positive HBeAg is a replicative, progressive and infective stage of hepatitis "B" virus (HBV) induced chronic liver disease (CLD), with chances of rapid progression to cirrhosis liver and possibly hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Seroconversion of HBeAg positive to HBeAG negative one and appearance of antibody to HBeAg (Anti HBeAb), possibly retards the course of progression of chronic liver disease, thus reducing the chances of development of cirrhosis liver and HCC. Spontaneous seroconversion is well known, but Lamivudine is considered to enhance this seroconversion in those with active disease. We randomly studied and compared the seroconversion rate spontaneously and with lamivudine in patients who were HBsAg / HBeAg positive for six months with a raised SGPT (ALT), and no ultrasonic evidence of cirrhosis liver. We found that lamivudine is effective in causing seroconversion and is well tolerated.

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