Pharmacotherapy to reduce arrhythmic mortality

Abstract

Fatal ventricular arrhythmias and heart failure are the common modes of death in patients with cardiovascular diseases. Intracardiac defibrillator (ICD) implantation reduces arrhythmic mortality to a significant extent in the high risk patient. However, there continues to be a need for effective drug therapy to reduce the arrhythmic and overall mortality in patients with or without an ICD. Although anti-arrhythmic drugs (AAD) appear inferior to ICD, the role of beta-blockers and to an extent amiodarone along with non AAD like angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I), mineralocorticoid blockers (MRB) and HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (statins) need to be emphasized. There have been many drug trials and meta-analysis to this effect and we review the role of drugs especially in their ability to reduce arrhythmic mortality and sudden cardiac death (SCD). The focus is on post myocardial infarction (MI) and heart failure patients with a brief overview of role of drugs in channelopathies.

Shensong Yangxin capsules prevent ischemic arrhythmias by prolonging action potentials and alleviating Ca2+ overload

“…no. P20080122150958640; Harvest Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Shanghai, China) were dissolved in distilled water and administered to rats (13). Amiodarone was used for the purposes of comparison.…”