title: All-cause mortality and cardiovascular events with nicorandil in patients with IHD: systematic review and meta-analysis of the literature.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Nicorandil is able to protect the cardiomyocytes from ischemic damage, but clear benefits of nicorandil in all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events were not consistently reported in patients with ischemic heart disease (IHD).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cochrane, PubMed, EMBASE, CBM, CNKI and Wangfang databases were searched for randomized controlled trials. Data on all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events were collected. Nicorandil groups were pooled to perform a comparison with control groups and to get the pooled odds ratios (ORs) and associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause mortality, relative risks (RRs), and associated 95% CIs for cardiovascular events. STATA 11.0 software was used for all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events statistics. We retrieved 17 randomized controlled studies enrolling a total of 7305 patients. The addition of nicorandil treatment significantly reduced cardiovascular events (13.83% versus 18.01%; RR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.69 to 0.86). No differences in all-cause mortality (3.83% versus 4.70%; OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.64 to 1.02), and repeat revascularization rate (13.06% versus 13.54%; RR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.70 to 1.29) were observed. There was a weak linear association between cardiovascular events and nicorandil in IHD with diabetes (P=0.099).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results suggest that nicorandil as an adjunct therapy to IHD is associated with reduced cardiovascular events in patients with IHD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510120, China.
authors.forename: Bihui
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510515, China. Electronic address: 932067133@QQ.COM.
authors.forename: Pingsheng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510120, China.
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bu
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510120, China.
authors.forename: Zhaohua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zeng
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Cardiovascular Research Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510120, China. Electronic address: ldf1688@aliyun.com.
authors.forename: Dongfeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Lu
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality; D002423:Cause of Death / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality*; D020108:Nicorandil / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods; D014665:Vasodilator Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D014665:Vasodilator Agents; D020108:Nicorandil
keywords: All-cause mortality; Cardiovascular events; Ischemic heart disease; Meta-analysis; Nicorandil