Safety and efficacy of colchicine therapy in the prevention of recurrent pericarditis

PURPOSE: A review of published data on the safety and efficacy of colchicine therapy for primary and secondary prevention of pericarditis is presented. SUMMARY: Colchicine has been used effectively as an antiinflammatory agent for gout and has shown promise as a treatment for acute and recurrent pericarditis. Several small studies have indicated that colchicine can decrease pericarditis symptom persistence at 72 hours and pericarditis recurrence rates at 18 months compared with conventional therapy (corticosteroids and aspirin or ibuprofen). A review of pooled data from four prospective randomized trials concluded that colchicine is safe and efficacious for the management of acute and recurrent pericarditis, with the results indicating lower rates of the respective primary and secondary endpoints of recurrent disease and symptom persistence in colchicine-treated patients. A separate meta-analysis of five studies found a reduced risk of pericarditis with colchicine use, suggesting that the drug may have clinical utility in both primary and secondary prevention. The accumulated evidence suggests that treatment with colchicine in the context of pericarditis is safe and well tolerated, with gastrointestinal intolerance being the most common adverse event documented in the clinical trials to date. CONCLUSION: Based on a review of the literature, prevention of recurrent pericarditis with colchicine can be considered a safe and effective option, though some patients have experienced gastrointestinal intolerance. Due to evidence that corticosteroids may potentially exacerbate the risk of relapse, colchicine may be a safer and preferable option.