NR566 Week 3 Study Outline Chapter 16: Drugs Affecting the Cardiovascular & Renal Systems

NR566 Week 3 Study Outline Chapter 16: Drugs Affecting the Cardiovascular & Renal Systems Antiarrhythmics • Arrhythmias can be benign and asymptomatic to malignant and life threatening • Antiarrhythmic drugs are proarrhythmic: can paradoxically correct one issue but cause another lethal one • Refer to a cardiologist any patient with a new rhythm disturbance or difficult to control • Arrhythmias are cause by either an abnormal pacemaker activity or abnormal impulse conduction • Goal of therapy: reduce ectopic pacemaker activity or alter abnormal conduction • MOA: sodium channel blockade, blockade of SNS effects on the heart, prolongation of the effective refractory period, and blockade of the calcium channel • The different classes of drugs act in one or more of these days