Table 1.

Colchicine in acute pericarditis.

	First author	(study name)	Study type	Patients number	Clinical setting	Colchicine dosage
Adverse event	Summary of findings	Millaire A [22], 1991	Case series	19	Acute 1st episode pericarditis	3mg 1st day, then 2mg for two days, then 1mg x 3-6 months.
5%.	- 100% Acute phase symptoms control, 10% recurrence		Imazio M [23], 2005	(COPE trial)	prospective, randomized, open-label trial.	120
1st episode of acute pericarditis, on top of aspirin	1.0 to 2.0 mg for the first day and then 0.5 to 1.0 mg/d for 3 months	8.3%		- Recurrence rate: colchicine 10.7% vs control 32.3%, p=0.009 NNT 5.	- Incessant symptom at 72 hours: Colchicine 11.7% versus control 36.7%, p=0.003.

Imazio M [24], 2013

(ICAP trial)

Prospective, multicenter, double-blind randomized trial

240

1st episode of acute pericarditis, on top of aspirin or ibuprofen

0.5 mg twice daily for 3 months for patients weighing >70 kg or 0.5 mg once daily for patients weighing ≤70 kg, for total of 3 months.

11.7%,

NS, Diarrhoea 9.2% NS.

- Recurrence rate: colchicine 9.2% vs placebo 20.8%, p=0.02,NNT 9.

- Incessant symptoms at 72 hours: colchicine 19.2% vs placebo 40.0%, p=0.001.

NS=non-significant, NNT=number needed to treat.