Therapeutic management of chronic hepatitis B in clinical practice: a region-wide survey.

Goals: To characterize the clinical and treatment pattern in a large population of hepatitis B virus (HBV) patients managed at tertiary referral centers in clinical practice.

Background: Successful treatment, either with interferon (IFN) or nucleos(t)ide analogs (NUCs), of chronic HBV infection is associated with improved long-term patient outcome. However, in clinical practice, the actual management of these patients is not well characterized, and data regarding treatment pattern in this setting are lacking.

Clinical and virological survey of patients with hepatitis B surface antigen in an Italian region: clinical considerations and disease burden.

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection in an Italian region, Liguria (1,572,000 inhabitants), by means of a network of 12 referral centers for liver diseases. All patients with HBV surface antigen followed throughout 2006 were included. Personal data, infectious status with risk factors, other non-infectious risk factors for liver disease, clinical status, and treatment were the questionnaire.

A significant proportion of patients with chronic hepatitis B who are candidates for antiviral treatment are untreated: A region-wide survey in Italy.

Background: Between 350 and 400 million people worldwide have chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection, and in Italy this figure is 1% to 2% in the general population. In clinical practice, however, it is not known how many patients chronically infected by HBV and eligible for antiviral therapy are not treated.

Aim: To characterize the clinical picture of untreated HBV patients, and to assess whether current experts' recommendations for treatment are actually applied.