RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Oral curcumin in elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair: a multicentre randomized controlled trial
JF Canadian Medical Association Journal
JO CMAJ
FD Canadian Medical Association
SP E1273
OP E1280
DO 10.1503/cmaj.180510
VO 190
IS 43
A1 Garg, Amit X.
A1 Devereaux, P.J.
A1 Hill, Andrew
A1 Sood, Manish
A1 Aggarwal, Bharat
A1 Dubois, Luc
A1 Hiremath, Swapnil
A1 Guzman, Randolph
A1 Iyer, Vikram
A1 James, Matthew
A1 McArthur, Eric
A1 Moist, Louise
A1 Ouellet, George
A1 Parikh, Chirag R.
A1 Schumann, Virginia
A1 Sharan, Sumit
A1 Thiessen-Philbrook, Heather
A1 Tobe, Sheldon
A1 Wald, Ron
A1 Walsh, Michael
A1 Weir, Matthew
A1 Pannu, Neesh
A1 ,
YR 2018
UL http://www.cmaj.ca/content/190/43/E1273.abstract
AB BACKGROUND: Curcumin, a popular herbal supplement from the plant turmeric, has prevented ischemic reperfusion and toxin-induced injury in many animal studies and a single-centre randomized human trial. We sought to test whether perioperative oral curcumin (compared with placebo) affects the inflammatory response and risk of postrepair complications after elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair in humans.METHODS: We conducted a parallel-group, randomized, placebo-controlled trial of patients from 10 hospitals in Canada who were scheduled to undergo elective repair of an unruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (November 2011 to November 2014). Patients in the treatment group received perioperative oral curcumin (2000-mg doses 8 times over 4 d). Patients, health care providers and local research staff were unaware of the treatment assignment. The primary outcomes were median concentrations of 4 bio markers indicating injury and inflammation (postoperative urine interleukin-18 and perioperative rise in serum creatinine, plasma N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide and plasma high-sensitivity C-reactive protein).RESULTS: Baseline characteristics were similar in the 2 groups (606 patients overall; median age 76 yr). More than 85% of patients in each group took more than 80% of their scheduled capsules. Neither curcumin nor placebo significantly affected any of the 4 biomarkers (p > 0.05 for all comparisons). Regarding the secondary outcomes, there was a higher risk of acute kidney injury with curcumin than with placebo (17% v. 10%, p = 0.01), but no between-group difference in the median length of hospital stay (5 v. 5 days, p > 0.9) or the risk of clinical events (9% v. 9%, p = 0.9).INTERPRETATION: Curcumin had no beneficial effects when used in elective abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. These findings emphasize the importance of testing turmeric and curcumin before espousing their health benefits, as is currently done in the popular media.Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, no. NCT01225094.See related article at www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.181358