Treatment Of Heart Disease - Drugs (Anti-Hypertensives, AntiArrhythmics, Anticoagulants)

These are drugs which control rapid or inappropriate heart rhythms (arrhythmias), and include some which have already been mentioned. The treatment of rapid beating of the atria is different from that involving the ventricles, and may be dealt with by a variety of drugs including digoxin and beta-blockers, both of which slow the rate of impulse transmission to the ventricles, and thereby prevent them followin as fast as the atria. Another drug acting in a similar way is verapamil. A second group of drugs acts by preventing the onset of rapid rhythms of the atria—these include quinidine. and disopyramide

Control of rapid - ventricular rhythms and ventricular ectopics may also be achieved with beta-blockers. Another group of drugs related to local anaesthetics, of which quinidine and disopyramide are two, are also effective; these include procainamide and mexilitene.

Anticoagulants

These decrease the tendency of the blood to clot. The most commonly used drug that can be taken by mouth is warfarin which takes several days become effective and whose action is governed by the liver's production of blood-clotting factors.

Anticoagulants are used in certain types of valve disease—notably mitral stenosis where the flow of blood through the left atrium is decreased and may lead the blood to clot, and in conjunction with many prosthetic (artificial) valves where blood flow is abnormal and clotting around the valve is otherwise frequent. The other major condition requiring the use of anticoagulants is in the treatment and prevention of pulmonary embolism or infarction (when blood clots form in or are lodged in the blood vessels of the lungs) or when clots form in the veins of the legs.