Vitamin E treatment for children with chronic hepatitis B: A randomized placebo controlled trial

Table 1 Characteristics and results of 76 children who completed the study before and after treatment with vitamin E or placebo

	Vitamin E	Placebo
Total	56	20
Sex (%)
Female	22 (39.3)	8 (40)
Male	34 (60.7)	12 (60)
Age (yr)	10.4	11.8
Alanine transaminase level (%)
Normal	33 (58.9)	13 (65)
Elevated	23 (41.1)	7 (35)
More than double above normal level	8	2
HBV-DNA (%)
< 1000 pg/mL	22 (39.3)	7 (35)
> 1000 pg/mL	35 (60.7)	13 (65)
Route of transmission (%)
Parenteral	1 (1.8)	1 (5)
Vertical	34 (60.7)	10 (50)
Unknown	21 (37.5)	9 (45)
Interferon alpha pre-treatment (%)1	11 (19.6)	4 (20)
Lamivudine pre-treatment (%)1	5 (8.9)	3 (15)
HBeAg seroconversion (%)2	16 (28.6)	2 (10)

¹Four patients were treated first with interferon alpha and re-treated with Lamivudine;

²12 mo follow-up evaluation after end of treatment.

Table 2 Characteristics of 18 children with chronic hepatitis B who responded to therapy with either vitamin E or placebo. Response defined as anti-HBe seroconversion, loss of HBeAg and HBV-DNA < 400 copies/mL

	Vitamin E	Placebo
Total	16	2
Sex (%)
Female	10 (62.5)	2 (100)
Male	6 (37.5)	0
Age (yr)	12.4	14.2
Alanine transaminase level (%)
Normal	8 (50)	2 (100)
Elevated	8 (50)	0
HBV-DNA (%)
< 1000 pg/mL	12 (75)	1 (50)
> 1000 pg/mL	4 (25)	1 (50)
Route of transmission (%)
Parenteral	1 (6.3)	0
Vertical	8 (50)	0
Unknown	7 (43.7)	2 (50)
Interferon alpha pretreatment (%)	2 (11)	0
Lamivudine pretreatment (%)	0	1 (50)
Dosage (%)
200 IU Vitamin E	0
400 IU Vitamin E	4 (25)
600 IU Vitamin E	12 (75)
HBeAg seroconversion after initiation of treatment
6 mo	6	0
12 mo	7	1
18 mo	3	1