Addition of nucleoside analogues to peg-IFNα-2a enhances virological response in chronic hepatitis B patients without early response to peg-IFNα-2a: a randomized controlled trial

Table 2 Knodell and Ishak scores before and after anti-viral therapy and improvement of liver histology after anti-viral therapy in the three treatment groups (N = 38)

Variables	Peg-IFNα-2a (n = 11)	Peg-IFNα-2a + ETV (n = 14)	Peg-IFNα-2a + ADV (n = 13)	P value
Before anti-viral therapy
Ishak score	3 (2, 3)	3 (2, 4)	4 (3, 4)	0.070
Knodell score	6 (5, 7)	6 (4.7, 7)	6 (5, 7.5)	0.154
After anti-viral therapy
Ishak score	3 (2, 3)	2.5 (2, 3.3)a	3 (2.5, 3.5)a	0.613
Knodell score	4 (4, 5)b	4 (3, 5)b	4 (3, 6)b	0.573
Improvement of liver histology	3 (27.3%)	9 (64.3%)	9 (69.2%)	0.083

Data were represented as median (IQR: 1st, 3rd quartiles) for Knodell score and Ishak score; and n (%) for improvement of liver histology
Differences between groups were compared using the Kruskall-Wallis test for Knodell and Ishak scores; Differences between pre- and post-inflammation were compared using the Wilcoxon Sign-rank test because the Knodell score and Ishak score were ordinal data. The improvement of liver histology was compared using Fisher’s exact test since some cell numbers were less than 5
There was no significant difference between the groups
ab P < 0.05, significant difference compared with pre-treated a (Ishak score) and b (Knodell score) for a given group

ISSN: 1471-230X