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The short-term and long-term effects of tolvaptan in patients with heart failure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

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Abstract

A comprehensive evaluation of the benefits of tolvaptan for the management of heart failure (HF) is lacking. The objective of this meta-analysis was to assess the short-term and long-term effects of tolvaptan in patients with HF. Articles were searched from PubMed, MEDLINE and Cochrane Library before March 31, 2015. Randomized controlled trials enrolling adult HF patients and reporting the all-cause mortality, cardiac events, body weight change or changes of serum electrolytes including sodium, potassium and creatinine were included in our meta-analysis. Ten studies covering 5574 patients met the inclusion criteria. Based on the data of meta-analysis, tolvaptan had no impact on the all-cause mortality [relative risk (RR) 0.96; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.87–1.06; P = 0.40] and incidence of cardiac events (RR 1.03; 95 % CI 0.96–1.11; P = 0.40) of HF patients. Furthermore, in comparison with control treatments, tolvaptan significantly decreased the body weight [weight mean difference (WMD), −0.87; 95 % CI −1.03 to −0.71; P < 0.001] and statistically increased serum sodium (WMD, 2.58; 95 % CI −1.83 to 3.33; P < 0.001) without any change in serum potassium (WMD, 0.01; 95 % CI −0.03 to 0.05; P = 0.577). However, serum creatinine may be increased slightly by tolvaptan (WMD, 0.05; 95 % CI 0.03–0.07; P < 0.001). This meta-analysis suggests that in HF patients, tolvaptan may not bring long-term benefits, but it effectively improves the volume overload and hyponatremia without obvious increases in serum potassium and creatinine. Hence, tolvaptan is likely to be a promising diuretic for the treatment of HF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, No. 76 Linjiang Road, Chongqing, 400010, China

    Bo Xiong, Yuwen Huang, Jie Tan, Yuanqing Yao, Chunbin Wang, Jun Qian, Shunkang Rong, Shimin Deng, Yin Cao, Yanke Zou & Jing Huang

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  1. Bo Xiong
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Correspondence to Jing Huang.

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All authors including Bo Xiong, Yuanqing Yao, Jun Qian, Shunkang Rong, Shimin Deng, Chunbin Wang, Yuwen Huang, Jie Tan, Yin Cao, Yanke Zou and Jing Huang declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Xiong, B., Huang, Y., Tan, J. et al. The short-term and long-term effects of tolvaptan in patients with heart failure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Heart Fail Rev 20, 633–642 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10741-015-9503-x

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