Hope-For-HepB Top10 June 2009
National Institutes of Health Consensus Development Conference Statement: management of hepatitis B.
Sorrell MF, Belongia EA, Costa J, Gareen IF, Grem JL, Inadomi JM, Kern ER, McHugh JA, Petersen GM, Rein MF, Strader DB, Trotter HT.
Ann Intern Med. 2009 Jan;150(2):104-10. Epub 2009 Jan 5.
Rating & Commentary
*** Consensus statement on management of chronic hepatitis B by a multidisciplinary group that weighted the evidence of hepatitis B experts. This paper should be considered the basic document for management of hepatitis B anno 2009.
Antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis B: Opportunities and challenges in Asia.
Liaw YF.
J Hepatol. 2009; 51(2):403-10. Epub 2009 Apr 17.
Rating & Commentary
* Opinion paper of great importance as it highlights the effect of pricing of nucleoside analogs on its use in low-income economies.
Evaluation of the patient with hepatitis B.
Rotman Y, Brown TA, Hoofnagle JH.
Hepatology. 2009;49(5 Suppl):S22-7
Rating & Commentary
** Important review describing the systematic evaluation of a patient with hepatitis B by a specialist.
Indications for therapy in hepatitis B.
Degertekin B, Lok AS.
Hepatology. 2009;49(5 Suppl):S129-37
Rating & Commentary
* Update on indication for viral therapy, from the viewpoint of hepatology, which is more progressive than the evidence-based public health approach (Ann Int. Med 2009; 150(2), 104-10).
Endpoints of therapy in chronic hepatitis B.
Feld JJ, Wong DK, Heathcote EJ.
Hepatology. 2009;49(5 Suppl):S96-S102
Rating & Commentary
* Resumé that highlights the inadequacy of currently used surrogate markers for endpoint of antiviral therapy and the need for further research in this area.
Nikolopoulos GK, Paraskevis D, Hatzitheodorou E, Moschidis Z, Sypsa V, Zavitsanos X, Kalapothaki V, Hatzakis A.
Clin Infect Dis. 2009;48(12):1763-71
Rating & Commentary
* A meta-analysis performed on data from 12,382 HIV-infected patients enrolled in 11 studies, which demonstrated that HIV-HBV co-infection seemed to affect all-cause mortality.
Decision analysis model for hepatitis B prophylaxis one year after liver transplantation.
Saab S, Ham MY, Stone MA, Holt C, Tong M.
Liver Transpl. 2009;15(4):413-20.
Rating & Commentary
** Farmacoeconomic support for continuation therapy of lamivudine and adefovir as first-line strategy in hepatitis B prophylaxis in liver transplant recipients 1 year after liver transplantation.
Borgniet O, Parvaz P, Bouix C, Chevallier P, Trépo C, André P, Zoulim F.
J Med Virol. 2009;81(8):1336-42.
Rating & Commentary
* A small case series of 16 patients who achieved HBsAg-seroconversion, in which it is clearly demonstrated that the clearance of serum HBsAg is slower than that of serum HBV DNA, which may reflect a slow kinetics of clearance of infected hepatocytes.
Ter Heine R, Huitema AD, Jansen RS, Smits PH, van Gorp EC, Wagenaar JF, Beijnen JH, Mulder JW.
Antivir Ther. 2009;14(2):299-301.
Rating & Commentary
* Case-report in which a patient treated with a tenofovir (dosed at 300 mg daily)–containing HAART regimen develops renal failure. Patient appeared to have been exposed to extremely high tenofovir plasma levels, and these were still in the therapeutic range one month after discontinuation.
Zhang YY, Chen EQ, Yang J, Duan YR, Tang H.
Virol J. 2009;6:63.
Rating & Commentary
* Meta-analysis pointing to a supplementary effect of thymosin to lamivudine. This result calls for further controlled investigation of thymosin, also in view of its reported supplemental effect to interferon.