A recently conducted study depicted that in the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 colchicine may be beneficial. The open-label, prospective, randomized clinical trial (GRECCO-19) explored the effect of treatment with low-dose colchicine on clinical outcomes, cardiac, and inflammatory biomarkers.

Between April 3 and April 27, 2020, the study recruited a total of 105 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in 16 tertiary hospitals in Greece. It aimed to explore the potential of colchicine to improve clinical outcomes among patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either standard of care (n=50; 47.6%) or standard of care plus colchicine (n=55; 52.4%).

Both the groups were identical with the majority of the individuals also being given hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine and azithromycin regimen. Colchicine treatment incorporated a 1.5 mg loading dose and a 0.5 mg dose after 1 hour. This was subsequently followed by maintenance doses of 0.5 mg twice daily for up to 21 days.

The primary endpoints assessed were maximum high-sensitivity cardiac troponin level, time for C-reactive protein to reach more than 3 times the upper reference limit, time to deterioration by 2 points on a 7-grade clinical status scale, ranging from able to resume normal activities to death. The secondary endpoints measured were all-cause mortality, the percent of patients requiring mechanical ventilation, and adverse effects.

The median age of enrolled patients was 64 years old and 58.1% (n=61) of participants were men. No significant differences were witnessed between the control and colchicine groups when analyzing median peak high-sensitivity cardiac troponin levels or median maximum C-reactive protein levels as depicted in the following table:

The primary clinical endpoint rate (clinical deterioration) was considerably higher for patients who received standard of care alone compared with those who received colchicine as shown in the following table:

For patients in the control group, the average event-free survival time was less than patients in the colchicine group. The occurrence of adverse events demonstrated a similarity between the two groups. However, more patients in the colchicine group experienced diarrhea when compared to the control group as depicted in the following table:

Participants who received colchicine had statistically significantly improved time to clinical deterioration. No substantial differences were witnessed in high-sensitivity cardiac troponin or C-reactive protein levels. However, these findings should be cautiously elucidated.