A case of recurrent benign pericarditis treated by colchicine

Abstract

After five recurrences of idiopathic pericarditis over a period of 8 months on steroidal anti-inflammatory therapy, a splenectomized patient aged 31 years benefited from treatment with colchicine. He was treated for one year without any recurrence. A relapse occurred 6, 7 and 17 months after having stopped the drug. This observation raises the question whether colchicine might be beneficial in recurrent benign pericarditis with or without corticodependence and have a prophylactic action against recurrences.

Pretreatment With Corticosteroids Attenuates the Efficacy of Colchicine in Preventing Recurrent Pericarditis: A Multi-centre All-case Analysis

“…To date, several small nonrandomized studies and case reports have corroborated the efficacy and safety of colchicine in the management of recurrent pericarditis. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] In the absence of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, as proposed by The Taskforce of Pericardial Disease of the World Heart Federation, 26 we sought to aggregate all published and unpublished data available on the outcome of patients with recurrent pericarditis treated with colchicine. Employing this multi-centre all-case approach, a database of 119 cases was created.…”