Clinical outcomes of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention treated with colchicine

Introduction and objectives: The role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of coronary artery disease, and that resulting from percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is increasingly recognized, yet the effect of colchicine in attenuating peri-PCI inflammation remains unknown. This meta-analysis investigated the efficacy of colchicine in patients undergoing PCI for secondary prevention of coronary artery disease. Methods: The Web of Science, PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and ClinicalTrials. gov databases were searched. Data on studies assessing the efficacy profile of colchicine in patients undergoing PCI were pooled using a random-effects model. Results: In 13 studies of 7414 patients, no differences were observed between patients treated with colchicine compared to those without for all-cause mortality (OR, 1.1; 95%CI, 0.72-1.56; I 2 = 0%), cardiovascular mortality (OR, 0.98; 95%CI, 0.42-2.28; I 2 = 14.2%), myocardial infarction (OR, 0.84; 95%CI, 0.65-1.08; I 2 = 1.4%) or coronary revascularization (OR, 0.64; 95%CI, 0.28-1.42; I 2 = 49.3%). However, patients treated with colchicine had a lower risk of stroke (OR, 0.33; 95%CI, 0.15-0.72; I 2 = 0%). Conclusions: Adding colchicine to standard medical therapy in patients undergoing PCI did not decrease all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality or urgent revascularization. However, it showed a trend towards a lower risk of myocardial infarction and a significantly lower risk of stroke.