Interferon/long-term lamivudine combination therapy in anti-HBe positive chronic hepatitis B patients.

Background: Monotherapy with a single antiviral agent is insufficient in controlling hepatitis B virus infection in the majority of patients with anti-HBe positive chronic hepatitis B. Interferon/long-term lamivudine combination therapy was evaluated to determine if this strategy would improve treatment efficacy and reduce the emergence of lamivudine resistance.

Methods: In total, 36 consecutive anti-HBe positive patients were treated with interferon (3 MU subcutaneously three times weekly) and lamivudine (100 mg orally once a day) for 12 months.

Small-duct primary sclerosing cholangitis. A single-center seven-year experience.

Patients with cholestatic liver function tests and histological features of primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) but without the typical cholangiographic changes are considered to have small-duct PSC. The incidence of small-duct PSC and the natural history still is not known. We performed a retrospective search for patients diagnosed with small-duct PSC between January 1997 and December 2003.