Reply

We thank Dr Jindal for his interests in and comments on our study, which we address herein. First, not all chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients with cirrhosis were indefinitely reimbursed for antiviral therapy by the national health insurance in Taiwan. For patients whose viremia did not exceed 2000 IU/mL or those without overt features of portal hypertension, the reimbursement was finite (up to 3 years in general) despite a clinical diagnosis of cirrhosis throughout the study period. Because our analysis was deliberately based on real-world data from consecutive patients who discontinued treatment as a routine practice, we did not select patients according to a particular stopping rule endorsed by any guidelines.
Source: Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology - Category: Gastroenterology Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research