Potential effect of tolvaptan on polycystic liver disease for patients with ADPKD meeting the Japanese criteria of tolvaptan use

Polycystic liver disease (PLD) is a common extrarenal complication of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), which causes compression-related syndrome and ultimately leads to liver dysfunction. Tolvaptan, a V2 receptor antagonist, is widely used to protect kidney function in ADPKD but its effect on PLD remains unknown. An observational cohort study was conducted to evaluate tolvaptan’s effect on patients with PLD due to ADPKD. After screening 902 patients, we found the 107 ADPKD patients with PLD who met the criteria of tolvaptan use in Japan. Among them, tolvaptan was prescribed for 62 patients (tolvaptan group), while the other was defined as the non-tolvaptan group. Compared with the non-tolvaptan group, the tolvaptan group had larger height-adjusted total kidney volume (median 994(range 450–4152) mL/m, 513 (405–1928) mL/m, p = 0.01), lower albumin level (mean 3.9±SD 0.4 g/dL, 4.3±0.4g/dL, p