On the basis of potent anti-inflammatory effects, a recent randomized, double-blind trial involving of treatment with low dose colchicine (0.5 mg daily) after myocardial infarction has been completed, randomising 2366 subjects to the active drug and 2379 to receive placebo and following the patients for a median period of 22.6 months. The patients were randomly assigned to receive either low-dose colchicine (0.5 mg once daily) or placebo. The primary efficacy end point was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, resuscitated cardiac arrest, myocardial infarction, stroke, or urgent hospitalization for angina leading to coronary revascularization. The primary end point occurred in 5.5% of the patients in the colchicine group, as compared with 7.1% of those in the placebo group (hazard ratio, 0.77; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.61 to 0.96; P=0.02). The hazard ratios were also impressive for other components of the outcomes, including 0.84 (95% CI, 0.46 to 1.52) for death from cardiovascular causes, 0.83 (95% CI, 0.25 to 2.73) for resuscitated cardiac arrest, 0.91 (95% CI, 0.68 to 1.21) for myocardial infarction, 0.26 (95% CI, 0.10 to 0.70) for stroke, and 0.50 (95% CI, 0.31 to 0.81) for urgent hospitalization for angina leading to coronary revascularization. Predictably, diarrhoea was reported in 9.7% of the patients in the colchicine group but was also seen in 8.9% of those in the placebo group (P=0.35). Significantly more pneumonia was reported amongst patients in the colchicine group than those in the placebo group (P=0.03). The results were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.