Effect of Treatment with Colchicine After Acute Coronary Syndrome on Major Cardiovascular Events: A Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials

Abstract

Purpose Colchicine as an anti-inflammatory drug might be effective in the treatment of atherosclerosis, an inflammatory-based condition. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the impact of colchicine on acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Methods We searched SCOPUS, PubMed, and Web of Science up to September 27, 2020. All clinical trials which evaluated the effect of colchicine on ACS patients and reported high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) serum level or gastrointestinal (GI) adverse events with at least 5-day follow up or death, Myocardial infarction (MI), and stroke with at least 30-day follow up as outcomes were included. Results Finally, seven publications were analyzed. The results of our study revealed that colchicine has a marginally significant effect on hs-CRP attenuation. Furthermore, colchicine manifested promising results by declining the risk of stroke by 70%. However, MI and primary composite endpoint did not differ between the colchicine and non-colchicine group. Although colchicine did not significantly increase GI adverse events in the pooled analysis, the dose-dependent effect was detected. Low dose consumption can avoid GI side effects of colchicine. Conclusion Colchicine has shown some molecular and clinical promising results in ACS patients. The lack of effect of colchicine on MI and all-cause mortality can be partly attributed to the limitations of previous studies. Since colchicine is an inexpensive and easy-to-access drug that has shown to be safe in low-dose regimens in the clinical setting, it worth that future large-scale well-designed studies address this issue by resolving the limitations of previous research.

Effect of Treatment with Colchicine after Acute Coronary Syndrome on Major Cardiovascular Events: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Clinical Trials

“…This manuscript is presented in Research square and is available at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-908934/v1 [ 45 ].…”