Research Article HBV Genotype B/C and Response to Lamivudine Therapy: A Systematic Review

Copyright © 2013 Xiu-Li Chen et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. A number of nucleoside analogues such as lamivudine (LAM), actually used for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B, can suppress HBV DNA replication, improve transaminase level and liver histology, and enhance the rate of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) clearance. The responses to LAM therapy involve HBeAg clearance and HBV DNA conversion of negative. However, the associations between HBV genotype B/C and response to LAM therapy remain ambiguous. The aim of this meta-analysis is to determine more precise estimations of the relationship. All the publications on the associations between HBV genotype B/C and response to LAM (HBeAg clearance and HBV DNA conversion of negative) through June 2013 were collected. Relative risk (RR) with 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) was calculated in fixed or randommodel