Clinical efficacy of tolvaptan for treatment of refractory ascites in liver cirrhosis patients

Figure 1 Overall efficacy of 15 mg/d tolvaptan. Overall efficacy of 15 mg/d tolvaptan for 5-14 d in all patients as well as in subgroups of patients with coexisting hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and hepatorenal syndrome (HRS) post-tolvaptan treatment.

Figure 2 The effects of tolvaptan on serum sodium (mean ± SE) in patients with and without hyponatremia (n = 21 and n = 18, respectively). Tolvaptan (15 mg/d, 5-14 d) treatment (black column) significantly increased serum sodium concentration [t (40) = -4.029, ^bP < 0.01 vs before treatment group] in patients with hyponatremia, but not in patients without hyponatremia [t (32) = 1.545, P > 0.05 (NS)]. NS: Not significant.

Figure 3 Tolvaptan does not affective liver function. A: Tolvaptan (15 mg/d for 5-14 d) does not affective liver function [model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST)] in patients with preexisting liver cirrhosis (P > 0.05); B: Kaplan-Meier analysis of the 1-mo survival of patients without hyponatremia, as well as with and without short-term correction of hyponatremia, did not show any significant difference between patient groups.