- Question
- Can low-dose colchicine, an oral anti-inflammatory drug, reduce ischemic cardiovascular events in patients who recently had a myocardial infarction?
- Design
- Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial enrolling 4745 patients recruited within 30 days after a myocardial infarction. Median follow-up was 22.6 months.
- Population
- Patients with a recent myocardial infarction, recruited within 30 days of the event.
- Intervention
- Low-dose colchicine, 0.5 mg once daily (2366 patients).
- Control
- Placebo once daily (2379 patients).
- Primary outcome
- Composite of cardiovascular death, resuscitated cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, stroke, or urgent hospitalization for angina leading to coronary revascularization.
- Results
- The primary endpoint occurred in 5.5% of the colchicine group versus 7.1% of the placebo group (HR 0.77; 95% CI 0.61 to 0.96; P = 0.02). Among the components, stroke had an HR of 0.26 (95% CI 0.10 to 0.70) and urgent hospitalization for angina leading to revascularization an HR of 0.50 (95% CI 0.31 to 0.81).
- Safety
- Diarrhea was similar between groups (9.7% with colchicine vs. 8.9% with placebo; P = 0.35). Pneumonia as a serious adverse event was more frequent with colchicine (0.9% vs. 0.4%; P = 0.03).
- Conclusion
- In patients with a recent myocardial infarction, colchicine 0.5 mg daily significantly lowered the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events compared with placebo.
- Why it matters
- It was among the first trials to show a clinical benefit of a targeted anti-inflammatory therapy in secondary prevention after myocardial infarction, supporting the inflammatory hypothesis of atherosclerosis and opening the door to using an inexpensive, widely available drug.
Card generated automatically with AI from the abstract of the original publication and the trial registry; every figure was checked against those sources. It may contain errors: verify the data at the source before using it for clinical decisions.
Generated on October 7, 2026