Efficacy and safety of colchicine in patients with acute coronary syndrome: A meta-analysis of randomized control trials

Abstract

Colchicine has an obvious anti-inflammatory effect. The occurrence of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is accompanied by a series of inflammatory reactions. We aimed to evaluate the efficacy and safety of colchicine in patients with ACS. Randomized controlled studies (RCTS) about the effects of colchicine on the treatment of patients with ACS were identified by searching databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library. A meta-analysis was performed using RevMan5.3 statistical software. Eight RCTs with 6730 patients were included in the meta-analysis, involving 3362 patients in the colchicine group and 3368 patients in the control group. Compared with the control group, the major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) [OR 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.57–0.83], recurrence of ACS (OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.56-0.91), revascularization (OR 0.45, 95% CI 0.29-0.70), and stroke (OR 0.36, 95% CI 0.17-0.75) were reduced in the colchicine group, but there were no significant differences in cardiac death, all-cause mortality, or gastrointestinal symptoms. In conclusion, Colchicine can be used as a new effective and safe medicine for the treatment of ACS, which can effectively reduce the occurrence of MACE, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular ischemic events, and revascularization without increasing the adverse reactions. The results is expected to be further verified by increasing the clinical sample size in the future.