Objective To assess the efficacy of telbivudine in the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB). Methods Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of telbivudine therapy vs. lamivudine therapy in both Chinese and English were retrieved from seven electronic databases with a cut-off date in February 2010, including PubMed, EMbase, VIP, CBM, CNKI, and The Cochrane library. The meta-analyses and evaluation on methodology quality were performed for the included studies. Results Two RCTs as Grade-A study were included. The meta-analyses showed that telbivudine was superior to lamivudine in aspects of therapeutic response (RR=1.28, 95%CI 1.10 to 1.48, P=0.001), ALT normalization (RR=1.12, 95%CI 1.01 to 1.23, P=0.02), and PCR-negative HBV DNA or below the lower limit (RR=1.44, 95%CI 1.36 to 1.53, Plt;0.000 01), primary treatment failure (OR=0.28, 95%CI 0.18, to 0.43, Plt;0.000 01), viral breakthrough (OR=0.38, 95%CI 0.32 to 0.47, Plt;0.000 01) and viral resistance (OR=0.44, 95%CI 0.36 to 0.55, Plt;0.000 01). Conclusion Based on the current clinical evidence, telbivudine demonstrates superiority in comparison with lamivudine on all direct measures of antiviral efficacy for CHB. Because of the short follow-up duration and the small sample size of the included studies, it is expected to further discuss the long-term efficacy.
ObjectiveTo evaluate the clinical efficacy and safety of telbivudine (TEV) combined with adefovir dipivoxil (ADV) for chronic hepatitis B (CHB), so as to provide references for clinical practice and research. MethodsWe electronically searched databases including The Cochrane Library (Issue 7, 2013), PubMed, EMbase, Web of Science, CBM, CNKI, VIP, and WanFang Data from inception to August 21st, 2013, for the relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs). Other sources were also retrieved. Two reviewers independently screened literature according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, extracted data, and assessed the quality of included studies. Then, meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.1 software. ResultsA Total of 11 RCTs involving 1 010 patients were included. The trial group were given TEV combined with ADV, while the control group were given TEV alone or ADV alone. The results of metaanalysis showed that, the combined use was superior to TEV alone or ADV alone in improving HBV-DNA negative rates at 12-, 24-, 48-weeks, HBeAg negative rates at 12-, 24-, 48-weeks, and ALT recovery rates at 12-, 24-weeks (P < 0.05). The results of qualitative analysis showed that, the trial group had a lower drug resistance rate, and both were alike in the incidence of adverse reaction. ConclusionCompared with TEV alone or ADV alone, TEV combined with ADV could improve the clinical efficacy of treating CHB which is also fairly safe. Due to the limited quantity and quality of the included studies, the aforementioned conclusion still needs to be further verified by conducting more large-scale and high quality RCTs.