Does colchicine plus conventional therapy reduce the recurrence rate in patients with a first episode of acute pericarditis?
Adding colchicine to conventional therapy significantly reduces the risk of recurrence in patients experiencing their first episode of acute pericarditis.
Colchicine plus conventional therapy led to a clinically important and statistically significant benefit over conventional treatment, decreasing the recurrence rate in patients with a first episode of acute pericarditis. Corticosteroid therapy given in the index attack can favor the occurrence of recurrences.
Imazio et al. (2005) studied this question.