Severe acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B during pegylated interferon treatment and early intervention with corticosteroid

Abstract

Abstract Severe acute exacerbation or liver failure induced by standard interferon-α(IFN-α) therapy had been reported to occur in few patients with chronic hepatitis B. However, no report showed that pegylated interferon-α therapy was able to induce severe acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B. Here, we describe three patients with severe acute exacerbation of chronic hepatitis B during pegylated interferon-α2a (Pegasys) treatment. One patient progressed into acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) at the second week of Pegasys treatment. Two patients progressed into acute-on-chronic pre-liver failure (pre-ACLF) at the second and eighth week of Pegasys treatment, respectively. Three patients recovered after early combined intervention with corticosteroid and lamivudine. Our data indicated that there was a risk of severe acute exacerbation among patients with chronic hepatitis B during receiving Pegasys treatment. Importantly, early combined intervention with corticosteroid and lamivudine should be introduced to prevent the disease progression and improve their prognosis once severe acute exacerbation was diagnosed.

Keywords

• Chronic hepatitis B
• Acute-on-chronic liver failure
• Severe acute exacerbation
• Corticosteroid
• Pegylated interferon