Treatment and Prognosis of Acute Pericarditis

The prognosis for patients with acute pericarditis is generally favorable, with 75 to 80 percent experiencing a benign course where the condition resolves and does not recur. Effective treatment primarily involves high-dose NSAIDs, typically ibuprofen or aspirin, combined with colchicine. NSAIDs should be administered until the patient's chest pain subsides and C-reactive protein (CRP) levels return to normal, often over two to three weeks. To significantly reduce the risk of recurrence, a three-month colchicine course is recommended, which lowers recurrence rates by approximately fifty percent. Monitoring CRP levels is crucial to evaluate systemic inflammation, and cardiac troponin testing may be warranted if there's suspicion of myocardial ischemia or concurrent myocarditis.