Monitoring of antiviral therapy with quantitative evaluation of hbeag: A comparison with HBV DNA testing

The serological endpoint of response in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B is the loss of hepatitis B virus DNA and HBeAg. Because the quantitative measurement of hepatitis B virus DNA in serum has been shown to be useful for monitoring and predicting response to interferon-α therapy, we decided to evaluate whether changes in HBeAgg concentrattion could also be used in this manner. Twenty-nine patients who were initially positive for HBeAg and HBV DNA were serially evaluated for HBeAg concentration with a microparticle-capture enzyme immunoassay