Hyponatremia in Cirrhosis and End-Stage Liver Disease: Treatment with the Vasopressin V2-Receptor Antagonist Tolvaptan

Hyponatremia is common in patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension, and is characterized by excessive renal retention of water relative to sodium due to reduced solute-free water clearance. The primary cause is increased release of arginine vasopressin. Hyponatremia is associated with increas...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gaglio, Paul, Marfo, Kwaku, Chiodo, Joseph
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Springer US 2012
Online Access:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3472061/
id pubmed-3472061
recordtype oai_dc
spelling pubmed-34720612012-10-18 Hyponatremia in Cirrhosis and End-Stage Liver Disease: Treatment with the Vasopressin V2-Receptor Antagonist Tolvaptan Gaglio, Paul Marfo, Kwaku Chiodo, Joseph Review Hyponatremia is common in patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension, and is characterized by excessive renal retention of water relative to sodium due to reduced solute-free water clearance. The primary cause is increased release of arginine vasopressin. Hyponatremia is associated with increased mortality in cirrhotic patients, those with end-stage liver disease (ESLD) on transplant waiting lists, and, in some studies, posttransplantation patients. Clinical evidence suggests that adding serum sodium to model for ESLD (MELD) scoring identifies patients in greatest need of liver transplantation by improving waiting list mortality prediction. Hyponatremia is also associated with numerous complications in liver disease patients, including severe ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, infectious complications, renal impairment, increased severity of liver disease in cirrhosis, and increased hospital stay and neurologic/infectious complications posttransplant. Vasopressin receptor antagonists, which act to increase free water excretion (aquaresis) and thereby increase serum sodium concentration, have been evaluated in patients with hypervolemic hyponatremia (including cirrhosis and heart failure) and euvolemic hyponatremia (SIADH). Tolvaptan, a selective vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist, is the only oral agent in this class approved for raising sodium levels in hypervolemic and euvolemic hyponatremia. The SALT trials showed that tolvaptan treatment rapidly and effectively resolved hyponatremia in these settings, including cirrhosis, and it has been shown that this agent can be safely and effectively used in long-term treatment. Fluid restriction should be avoided during the first 24 h of treatment to prevent overly rapid correction of hyponatremia, and tolvaptan should not be used in patients who cannot sense/respond to thirst, anuric patients, hypovolemic patients, and/or those requiring urgent intervention to raise serum sodium acutely. Springer US 2012-06-26 2012 /pmc/articles/PMC3472061/ /pubmed/22732834 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10620-012-2276-3 Text en © The Author(s) 2012
repository_type Open Access Journal
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building NCBI PubMed
collection Online Access
language English
format Online
author Gaglio, Paul
Marfo, Kwaku
Chiodo, Joseph
spellingShingle Gaglio, Paul
Marfo, Kwaku
Chiodo, Joseph
Hyponatremia in Cirrhosis and End-Stage Liver Disease: Treatment with the Vasopressin V2-Receptor Antagonist Tolvaptan
author_facet Gaglio, Paul
Marfo, Kwaku
Chiodo, Joseph
author_sort Gaglio, Paul
title Hyponatremia in Cirrhosis and End-Stage Liver Disease: Treatment with the Vasopressin V2-Receptor Antagonist Tolvaptan
title_short Hyponatremia in Cirrhosis and End-Stage Liver Disease: Treatment with the Vasopressin V2-Receptor Antagonist Tolvaptan
title_full Hyponatremia in Cirrhosis and End-Stage Liver Disease: Treatment with the Vasopressin V2-Receptor Antagonist Tolvaptan
title_fullStr Hyponatremia in Cirrhosis and End-Stage Liver Disease: Treatment with the Vasopressin V2-Receptor Antagonist Tolvaptan
title_full_unstemmed Hyponatremia in Cirrhosis and End-Stage Liver Disease: Treatment with the Vasopressin V2-Receptor Antagonist Tolvaptan
title_sort hyponatremia in cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease: treatment with the vasopressin v2-receptor antagonist tolvaptan
description Hyponatremia is common in patients with cirrhosis and portal hypertension, and is characterized by excessive renal retention of water relative to sodium due to reduced solute-free water clearance. The primary cause is increased release of arginine vasopressin. Hyponatremia is associated with increased mortality in cirrhotic patients, those with end-stage liver disease (ESLD) on transplant waiting lists, and, in some studies, posttransplantation patients. Clinical evidence suggests that adding serum sodium to model for ESLD (MELD) scoring identifies patients in greatest need of liver transplantation by improving waiting list mortality prediction. Hyponatremia is also associated with numerous complications in liver disease patients, including severe ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, infectious complications, renal impairment, increased severity of liver disease in cirrhosis, and increased hospital stay and neurologic/infectious complications posttransplant. Vasopressin receptor antagonists, which act to increase free water excretion (aquaresis) and thereby increase serum sodium concentration, have been evaluated in patients with hypervolemic hyponatremia (including cirrhosis and heart failure) and euvolemic hyponatremia (SIADH). Tolvaptan, a selective vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist, is the only oral agent in this class approved for raising sodium levels in hypervolemic and euvolemic hyponatremia. The SALT trials showed that tolvaptan treatment rapidly and effectively resolved hyponatremia in these settings, including cirrhosis, and it has been shown that this agent can be safely and effectively used in long-term treatment. Fluid restriction should be avoided during the first 24 h of treatment to prevent overly rapid correction of hyponatremia, and tolvaptan should not be used in patients who cannot sense/respond to thirst, anuric patients, hypovolemic patients, and/or those requiring urgent intervention to raise serum sodium acutely.
publisher Springer US
publishDate 2012
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3472061/
_version_ 1611916431597764608