Nicorandil improves clinical outcomes in patients with stable angina pectoris requiring PCI: a systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 randomized trials

Introduction: Clinical trials concerning the effects of nicorandil in stable coronary artery disease (CAD) remain controversial. This study sought to evaluate the clinical outcomes of nicorandil following elective percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI).

Areas covered: A meta-analysis including eligible randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with data on the nicorandil in stable CAD from Pubmed, EMBase, and Cochrane library (up to March 2018) was conducted. The primary end points were postprocedural incidence of myocardial infarction (MI) and contrast-induced nephropathy (CIN). The second end point was major adverse cerebrovascular and cardiovascular events (MACCE). Fourteen RCTs with a total of 1947 elective CAD patients were selected. Nicorandil significantly reduced the incidence of MI [n = 8; relative risk (RR) = 0.58; P = 0.001; I² = 33.7%], and CIN (n = 5; RR = 0.36; P < 0.00001; I² = 15.4%). However, There was no lowered risk of MACCE in nicorandil-treated patients [n = 10; odds RR = 0.75; P = 0.19; I² = 0.0%]. Subsequent trial sequential analyses confirmed the effect of nicorandil on MI and CIN in PCI.

Expert commentary: The present systematic review and meta-analysis suggests that nicorandil could improve clinical outcomes in terms of perioperative MI and CIN. However, the effect of nicorandil on the MACCE risk is not obvious. Future high-quality, large-scale clinical trials should majorly concern about the long-term clinical effect of nicorandil.