Chronic hepatitis B reactivation after treatment discontinuation

V.V. Makashova^1,2, Kh.G. Omarova¹

¹Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Well-Being, Moscow

²Infectious Clinical Hospital No. 2, Moscow

The last decades have witnessed dramatic progress both in the diagnosis and development of novel drugs for chronic hepatitis B, in particular, nucleoside analogues. However, many aspects are still challenging, i.e., treatment duration, the risk of resistance in long-term treatment, criteria for drug discontinuation without any risk of chronic hepatitis B reactivation, the effect on the prevention of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma etc.

The paper addresses case history of chronic hepatitis B without delta agent, phase 2 (HbeAg+), characterized by high biochemical marker levels, high viral load, and liver fibrosis stage 2. This woman has received nucleoside analogue for 10 years. Liver enzyme levels have returned to normal quickly and were stable. However, after discontinuing the treatment, hepatitis B reactivation has occurred. The patient was prescribed with tenofovir. ALT has re turned to normal levels, viral load has reduced by 2 logs (to 1.45×10⁴ IU/ml) and was stable.

This case history demonstrates that patients should not discontinue the treatment with nucleoside analogues to prevent disease progression and its transformation to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Identification of markers to assess the possibility of nucleoside analogue discontinuation and the development of novel drugs targeting viral DNA are still important.

Keywords: chronic hepatitis B, treatment, nucleoside analogues, hepatitis B reactivation.

For citation: Makashova V.V., Omarova Kh.G. Chronic hepatitis B reactivation after treatment discontinuation. RMJ. 2019;10:50–52.