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HBV viral kinetics during PEG-IFN 221<br />

Figure 3. Modelled viral decline and observed viral load in all 19 patients treated with PEG-IFN<br />

monotherapy in the fi rst month of treatment.<br />

to undetectable levels in the majority of patients. This is in accordance with previous<br />

PEG-IFN α-2b pharmacokinetic studies in patients with chronic hepatitis C. 14, 17-19 Based<br />

on these pharmacokinetic data, one could consider twice-weekly administration of PEG-<br />

IFN α-2b. In chronic hepatitis C patients treated with twice weekly administration for<br />

28 days, there were high PEG-IFN α-2b concentrations in the blood at all days during<br />

the week and there was no rebound in HCV-RNA at the end of the week as was seen<br />

with once weekly injections. 18 Nevertheless, despite these suboptimal pharmacokinetic<br />

characteristics for PEG-IFN α-2b, the end of treatment and follow-up results of PEG-IFN<br />

α-2b and PEG-IFN α-2a - which has a prolonged higher concentration in blood - are<br />

comparable in chronic hepatitis B. 6-7, 9<br />

We analyzed the pharmacokinetics during PEG-IFN α-2b therapy in all 96 patients using<br />

a model proposed by Powers et al. and Talal et al. for chronic hepatitis C infection.

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