Hepatitis B surface antigen levels of cessation of nucleos(t)ide analogs associated with virological relapse in hepatitis B surface antigen-negative chronic hepatitis B patients

AIM: To investigate the virological relapse rate in hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg)-negative patients after antiviral therapy discontinuation and analyze the factors associated with virological relapse. METHODS: Among patients diagnosed with chronic hepatitis B infection between May 2005 and July 2010, 204 were eligible for analysis. The Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to calculate the cumulative rate of relapse and compare cumulative relapse rates between groups. The Cox proportional hazards regression model was used to evaluate the predictive factor of virological relapse. RESULTS: The 2 and 1 year cumulative risks of virological relapse after antiviral therapy discontinuation were 79.41% (162/204) and 43.82% (71/162), respectively. Multivariate analysis revealed that only post treatment hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) level was associated with virological relapse (P = 0.011). The cumulative risk of virological relapse was higher in the patients with HBsAg levels >= 1500 IU/L than in those with HBsAg levels < 1500 IU/L (P = 0.0013). The area under the curve was 0.603 (P = 0.033). The cutoff HBsAg value for predicting virological relapse was 1443 IU/L. CONCLUSION: We found that the virological relapse rate remained high after antiviral therapy discontinuation in the HBeAg-negative patients and that the post treatment HBsAg levels predicted virological relapse.