Table 2.

Estimated RR and 95% CIs Produced by Random-Effects Pairwise Meta-Analysis for Cardiovascular Events in Smoking Cessation RCTs

		All CV Events			MACEs
Studies, n	Comparison	Events	RR (95% CI)	I², %	Events	RR (95% CI)	I², %
All trials
21 RCTs^{10,30–46,49,53,68}	NRT vs placebo	202/6329 vs 83/5318	1.81 (1.35–2.43)	0	12/6329 vs 7/5318	1.38 (0.58–3.26)	0
27 RCTs^{13-15,47–49,51–71}	Bupropion vs placebo	50/5947 vs 42/4455	1.03 (0.71–1.50)	0	15/5947 vs 25/4455	0.57 (0.31–1.04)	0
18 RCTs^{22,54,55,72–79,81–87}	Varenicline vs placebo	63/5469 vs 41/3603	1.24 (0.85–1.81)	0	22/5469 vs 13/3603	1.44 (0.73–2.83)	0
2 RCTs^54,55	Bupropion vs varenicline	1/686 vs 2/696	0.74 (0.05–10.5)		1/686 vs 0/696	3.07 (0.12–75.09)
3 RCTs^49,53,68	Bupropion vs NRT	4/367 vs 2/366	1.40 (0.25–7.82)	2	0/367 vs 1/366	0.34 (0.01–7.94)
1 RCT⁸⁰	Varenicline vs NRT	0/378 vs 2/379	0.20 (0.01–4.16)		0/378 vs 2/379	0.20 (0.01–4.16)
High-risk patients only		k=13			k=9
3 RCTs^10,46,53	NRT vs placebo	33/454 vs 26/374	1.24 (0.77–2.02)		6/454 vs 4/374	1.48 (0.42–5.19)	NA
8 RCTs^{13–15,47,53,59,61,64}	Bupropion vs placebo	27/1241 vs 25/1234	1.04 (0.59–1.83)	0	9/1241 vs 15/1234	0.63 (0.28–1.41)	0
3 RCTs^22,74,77	Varenicline vs placebo	30/754 vs 26/745	1.15 (0.69–1.92)		14/754 vs 11/745	1.35 (0.61–3.01)	0
	Bupropion vs varenicline		NA			NA
1 RCT⁵³	Bupropion vs NRT	3/50 vs 0/50	7 (0.37–132.10)		0/50 vs 0/50	NA
	Varenicline vs NRT		NA			NA

CI indicates confidence interval; CV, cardiovascular; MACE, major adverse cardiovascular event; NRT, nicotine replacement therapy; RCT, randomized, clinical trial; and RR, relative risk.