Oral Ganciclovir for Treatment of Lamivudine-Resistant Hepatitis B Virus

liver411

Infection: A Pilot Study
Date:  Thu, 31 Oct 2002 06:36:40 -0500
Clinical Infectious Diseases 2002;35:960-965
?2002 by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. All rights reserved.
1058-4838/2002/3508-0007$15.00

Oral Ganciclovir for Treatment of Lamivudine-Resistant Hepatitis B Virus
Infection: A Pilot Study

Hakan Bozkaya,1 Cihan Yurdaydin,1 Abdullah Mithat Bozdayi,2 Ozlem Erkan,2
Selim Karayalcin,1 and Ozden Uzunalimoglu2
1Department of Gastroenterology, Ankara University Medical School, and
2Institute of Hepatology, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey


Received 19 April 2002; revised 10 June 2002; electronically published 25
September 2002.
Although liver disease seems to be stable in most patients who are infected with lamivudine-resistant mutant hepatitis B virus (HBV) in the short term, it may progress to more-advanced disease in some patients. In our pilot study, we investigated the efficacy of oral ganciclovir for the treatment of lamivudine-resistant HBV infection. Six patients infected with
lamivudine-resistant HBV (3 patients had decompensated cirrhosis and 3 had chronic active hepatitis without cirrhosis) were included. Ganciclovir was administered at a dosage of 3 g daily for 6 months. Four of 6 patients
completed the 6-month treatment period. Two patients with cirrhosis
completed only 2 months of ganciclovir treatment because they died of
cirrhosis complications. None of the patients had a 2-log10 reduction of HBV DNA and complete alanine aminotransferase normalization at the end of their treatment regimens. In conclusion, 6 months of ganciclovir treatment is not effective for suppression of lamivudine-resistant HBV infection.