A Randomized Trial of Colchicine for Acute Pericarditis

In a randomized trial, patients with acute pericarditis were assigned to either colchicine or placebo in addition to conventional antiinflammatory therapy. Colchicine significantly reduced the incidence of incessant or recurrent pericarditis. Colchicine has been used for centuries to treat and prevent gouty attacks 1 and more recently has been recommended to treat and prevent serositis in patients with familial Mediterranean fever and recurrent pericarditis. 2 , 3 Preliminary data from nonrandomized trials have also supported the use of colchicine for the treatment and prevention of acute pericarditis. 4 In a single-center, open-label, randomized trial, called the Colchicine for Acute Pericarditis (COPE) study, the addition of colchicine to conventional therapy with either aspirin or glucocorticoids halved the recurrence rate after an initial attack of acute pericarditis. 5 Our study, called the Investigation on Colchicine for Acute Pericarditis . . .