Authors’ reply

We appreciate the comments of Dr. Basyigit et al on our recent study showing that antiviral therapy leads to histological improvement in HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B patients. We agree with the comment that there are numerous factors that may have an impact on the degree of fibrosis resolution. Unfortunately, in our data we did not find any correlation between the disease staging and the age of the patients (95%CI -6.4 – 5.7, P=0.91), or the viral load in the first biopsy (95%CI -4.7×108 – 1.4×108, P=0.27). Male patients had a trend to have a greater change in fibrosis stage (-0.66 vs. -0.42), however the difference was not statistical significant (95%CI -0.18 – 0.38, P=0.23). In the current literature there is data that correlates the female gender and the younger age of the patients with better outcomes in HBeAg negative chronic hepatitis B [1,2]. Our study was an observational study of a small number of patients followed up in our department and unfortunately we did not have enough power to show statistical significant differences between our groups (N=50). Finally, we have no data in our group about the genetic subtype of the virus.