[Effectiveness of lamivudine in the treatment of chronic HBeAg-negative viral hepatitis B: results of continuous therapy for 18 months].

: The efficacy of monotherapy with one of the analogues of synthetic nucleosides (lamivudine) was studied in 22 patients with chronic viral hepatitis B (CVHB). The specific feature of the selected group was that there was no serum HBeAg, which is usually regarded as a sign of viral mutation. The time course of changes in the activity of blood and hepatic inflammatory processes and viral replication were studied at equal intervals. There was a direct correlation between the suppression of viral replication and the regression of activity indices, such as ALT, serological markers, DNA of viral hepatitis B, and the morphological constituents of the Knodell index) during lamivudine therapy. However, there were no substantial changes in the parameters of fibrosis throughout the treatment. Therapy resistance was revealed in 3 of the 22 patients with CVHV. Its basis was the mutation of hepatitis B virus in the YMDD-motive, which was detected in 2 of the 3 patients.