Colchicine in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease with or Without Diabetes Mellitus: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials

Whether the anti-inflammatory drug colchicine has a differential treatment effect according to diabetes mellitus status in patients with coronary artery disease has never been studied. Therefore, the aim of the present meta-analysis was to evaluate whether the use of colchicine in patients with coronary artery disease with diabetes was associated with a higher magnitude of benefits compared to patients with coronary artery disease without diabetes.

Electronic databases were searched through June 2020 to identify randomized clinical trials using colchicine in patients with coronary artery disease. Studies using blood biomarkers, such as troponin or high-sensitive C-reactive protein, as well as angiographic endpoints were excluded. The primary endpoint was major cardiovascular events as defined by the included studies.

In total, 11,594 patients from four randomized trials were included of whom 2278 (19.6%) had diabetes and 5540 (47.8%) presented with acute coronary syndrome. Colchicine was associated with almost twice the absolute risk reduction in patients with diabetes {absolute risk difference (ARD) − 3.94 [95% confidence interval (CI) − 1.28 to − 6.6], p = 0.004} compared with those without diabetes [ARD − 2.32 (95% CI − 1.32 to − 3.31), p < 0.001]. The magnitude of ARD between colchicine and placebo was significantly larger in patients with diabetes compared with patients without diabetes [ARD 1.62 (95% CI 1.43–1.81), p < 0.001]. When the analysis was restricted to patients presenting with acute coronary syndrome, the differential treatment effect of colchicine was more pronounced in patients with diabetes [ARD − 0.05 (95% CI − 0.08 to − 0.01), p = 0.02] compared with those without diabetes [ARD − 0.01 (95% CI − 0.02 to 0), p = 0.11].

This meta-analysis underscores the heightened inflammatory risk associated with diabetes and highlights the need to target inflammatory pathways in these individuals irrespective of glucose-lowering drugs.