Abstract

Backgrounds: Although entacavir and adefovir were widely used in most Asian countries, there were few conclusions drawn from a meta-analysis for comparing the efficacy between entecavir and adefovir in nucleos(t)ide-naive Asian patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB). The aim of this study was to evaluate the 48-week efficacy between the two drugs in HBeAg-positive nucleos(t)ide-naive Asian CHB patients with the method of Meta analysis, which was generally accepted by the international as the best evidence for evaluating the efficacy of drugs.

Methods: We searched all data documented in Pubmed, Embase, Wanfang Database and CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) before November 30, 2010. Heterogeneity was examined by Chi-square test, the relative risk calculated and forest plot drawn. Rates of undetected serum HBV DNA, serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) normalization, HBeAg clearance and HBeAg seroconversion were analyzed. A total of 6 articles was included. Meta analysis showed that the rate of undetected serum HBV DNA (relative risk, 1.73; 95% confidence interval, 1.38-2.17; P<0.00001) and that of serum ALT normalization (relative risk, 1.25; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-1.49; P=0.009) in the entecavir group were higher than those in the adefovir group. However, no statistic significance existed between the two groups in the rate of HBeAg clearance (relative risk, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.44-1.35; P=0.36), or the rate of HBeAg seroconversion (relative risk, 0.74; 95% confidence interval, 0.28-1.94; P=0.53).

Conclusions: Entecavir is superior to adefovir in decreasing serum HBV DNA and normalizing ALT but similar with adefovir in clearing HBeAg and encouraging HBeAg seroconversion for the HBeAg-positive nucleos(t)ide-naive Asian patients with chronic hepatitis B. Adefovir can be still used for first-line therapy in these patients.