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Effect of colchicine in prevention of pericardial effusion and atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis

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Abstract

Randomized, controlled trials (RCTs) have assessed the effect of colchicine therapy in prevention of pericardial effusion (PE) and atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the effects are still inconclusive. PubMed, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, and EMBASE database were searched. Primary outcome was the risk of PE and AF. Ten RCTs with 1981 patients and a mean follow-up of 12.6 months were included. Colchicine therapy was not associated with a significantly lower risk of post-operative PE (RR, 0.89; 95 % CI 0.70–1.13; p = 0.33, I 2 = 72.8 %) and AF (RR, 0.77; 95 % CI 0.52–1.13; p = 0.18, I 2 = 47.3 %). However, rates of pericarditis recurrence, symptoms persistence, and pericarditis-related hospitalization were significantly decreased with colchicine treatment. In addition, cardiac tamponade occurrence was similar between groups, and adverse events were significantly higher in the colchicine group. Colchicine may not significantly decrease the post-operative risk of PE and AF. However, only limited studies about patients undergoing cardiac surgery provide data about PE and AF.

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Acknowledgments

Our study was funded by the capital health research and development of special from Beijing Municipal Bureau of Health (No. 2014-1-4051).

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, China

      Ming-xuan Wang

    2. Department of Neurology, Wuhan Medical & Healthcare Center for Women and Children, Wuhan Children’s Hospital, Wuhan, Hubei, China

      Xiao-long Deng

    3. Department of Rheumatology, Beijing Hospital, No. 1, Dahua Road, East District, Beijing, China

      Bing-Yao Mu, Yong-Jing Cheng, Ying-Juan Chen, Qian Wang, Jia Huang, Rong-Wei Zhou & Ci-Bo Huang

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    1. Ming-xuan Wang
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    Correspondence to Ci-Bo Huang.

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    All procedures in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the author.

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    M. Wang and X. Deng contributed equally to this work and should be considered co-first authors.

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    Wang, Mx., Deng, Xl., Mu, BY. et al. Effect of colchicine in prevention of pericardial effusion and atrial fibrillation: a meta-analysis. Intern Emerg Med 11, 867–876 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-016-1496-5

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    • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11739-016-1496-5

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