Colchicine for secondary prevention of vascular events: a meta-analysis of trials

Randomized trials of colchicine in secondary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease have shown mixed results.

A systematic review and study-level meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials was performed comparing colchicine vs no colchicine in a secondary-prevention atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease population. A fixed-effect inverse variance model was applied using the intention-to-treat population from the included trials. The primary outcome was the composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke.

Nine trials, including 30 659 patients (colchicine 15 255, no colchicine 15 404) with known coronary artery disease or stroke, were included. Compared with no colchicine, patients randomized to colchicine had a relative risk (RR) of 0.88 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.81–0.95, P = .002] for the primary composite outcome, including a RR of 0.94 for cardiovascular death (95% CI 0.78–1.13, P = .5), a RR of 0.84 for myocardial infarction (95% CI 0.73–0.97, P = .016), and a RR of 0.90 for stroke (95% CI 0.80–1.02, P = .09). Colchicine was associated with a RR of 1.35 for hospitalization for gastrointestinal events (95% CI 1.10–1.66, P = .004) with no increase in hospitalization for pneumonia, newly diagnosed cancers, or non-cardiovascular death.

In patients with prior coronary disease or stroke, colchicine reduced the composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke by 12%.