Table 5.

Studies on colchicine for the prevention of atrial fibrillation

Study	Study design	Dosing	Clinical setting	Patients	Main results
COPPS-POAF48 (2011)	Double-blind RCT	Colchicine, 1 mg on third postoperative day followed by 0.5 mg daily (if <70 kg) or 1 mg twice daily followed by 0.5 mg twice daily (if ≥70 kg), for 1 month	Atrial fibrillation following cardiac surgery	336	Reduction of postoperative atrial fibrillation (12% vs. 22%, P = 0.021)
Deftereos et al.38w (2012)	Double-blind RCT	Colchicine 0.5 mg twice daily for 3 months	Atrial fibrillation recurrence following pulmonary vein isolation	161	Reduction of postoperative atrial fibrillation (16% vs. 34%, P < 0.01), CRP at day 4 (−1.18 mg/L vs. −0.46 mg/L, P < 0.01) and IL-6 at day 4 (−0.50 pg/mL vs. −0.10 pg/mL, P < 0.01)
Deftereos et al.50 (2014)	Double-blind RCT	Colchicine 0.5 mg twice daily for 3 months	Atrial fibrillation recurrence following pulmonary vein isolation	223	Reduction of postoperative atrial fibrillation (31% vs. 49%, P = 0.01), improvement of the physical domain of quality of life scores at 12 months (63.6 ± 13.8 vs. 52.5 ± 18.1, P < 0.01)
END-AF trial36w (2016)	Double-blind RCT	Colchicine 0.5 mg twice daily plus 2 mg before surgery (half dose if <70 kg) for 8 days (mean)	Atrial fibrillation following cardiac surgery	360	Failure to reduce the occurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation (14% vs. 20%, P = NS)
Zarpelon et al.37w (2016)	Double-blind RCT	Colchicine 1 mg twice daily before surgery, then 0.5 mg twice daily until discharge	Atrial fibrillation following cardiac surgery	140	Failure to reduce the occurrence of postoperative atrial fibrillation (7% vs. 13%, P = NS)

CRP, C-reactive protein; IL-6, interleukin-6; RCT, randomized controlled trial.