In the recommendation by the Asian PAcific Association for the Study of the Liver(APASL), antiviral drug is recommended to stop when HBeAg seroconversion has developed for more than 6 months among HBeAg-positive patietns. For HBeAg-negative patients, the APASL consensus recommended stopping anti-viral treatment when HBV DNA remained undetectable for three separates occasion 6 months apart. Nontheless, approximately 25% to 50% of the patients still develop hepatitis relapse after stopping anti-viral therapy even if these recommendations are followed. In this study, the investigators aimed to investigated the off-treatment sustained response in chronic hepatitis B parients following the stopping anti-viral treatment guideline in Korea.
The aim of this study is to investigate the off-treatment sustained virological and biochemical response in chronic hepatitis B patients following the guideline by the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) in Korea.