Efficacy of telbivudine on interruption of hepatitis B virus vertical transmission: a meta-analysis

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is one of the most common infections in the world. Vertical transmission is the main reason for the continued endemic infection rates, at least in Asia. This study aimed to investigate the efficacy of telbivudine on mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) interruption. METHODS: Studies up to April 2012 were collected by searching Pubmed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, EBM Review, WangFang Database and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Serum hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and HBV DNA in newborns and infants, maternal HBV DNA negative conversion and alanine transaminase (ALT) normalization and adverse events were analyzed. RESULTS: Seven clinical trials involving 644 pregnant women were included in this meta-analysis. Telbivudine resulted in lower HBsAg and HBV DNA seroprevalence in newborns and infants. When maternal viral load prior to delivery was higher than 10(3) copies/mL, HBsAg or HBV DNA positivity had no statistical difference. CONCLUSIONS: Telbivudine treatment has efficacy and safety on MTCT interruption during late pregnancy. In addition, we demonstrated benefit of telbivudine for mothers in terms of HBV DNA negative conversion and ALT normalization. Telbivudine treatment at the end of pregnancy should be considered in women with high viral load.