Fig. 1: Alanine aminotranferase (ALT) activity levels in two patients (patient 1, boxes; patient 2, circles) with chronic hepatitis B during treatment with interferon alfa at a dosage of 6 MU/m2 three times per week. The table above the graph shows the test results for the presence of hepatitis B e antigen (HBeAg) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) for the two patients at times during therapy corresponding to those below on the graph. ALT levels may increase soon after beginning treatment or later, and this increase precedes seroconversion to antibody to HBeAg.