The Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) announced on November 16^th, 2019 the results from the COLchicine Cardiovascular Outcomes Trial (COLCOT) which compared colchicine to placebo on top of standard of care in preventing ischemic cardiovascular events in patients with a recent myocardial infarction (MI). In this study, patients receiving colchicine 0.5mg daily had a significantly lower rate of first and total (first and recurrent) ischemic cardiovascular events than those on placebo¹. These data were simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and presented at the American Heart Association (AHA) late-breaking Scientific Session (AHA 2019 presentation).

The primary efficacy endpoint was a composite of cardiovascular death, resuscitated cardiac arrest, MI, stroke or urgent hospitalization for angina requiring coronary revascularization¹. Patients were also treated according to national guidelines that included the intensive use of statins¹.

Treatment with colchicine resulted in a:

• 23% reduction in the risk of a first event of the primary efficacy endpoint; with event rates of 5.5% with colchicine and 7.1% with placebo (HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.61-0.96; p=0.02)¹.

• 34% reduction in the risk of total (first and recurrent) events of the primary efficacy endpoint (RR, 0.66, 95% CI, 0.51-0.86, p=0.002)¹.

• 29% reduction in the risk of a first event of the primary efficacy endpoint in patients who adhered to the protocol; with event rates of 5.1% with colchicine and 7.1% with placebo (HR, 0.71; 95% CI, 0.56-0.90)¹.

1. Tardif J-C, Kouz S, Waters D, et al. Efficacy and safety of low-dose colchicine after myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med 2019. Available at www.nejm.org