Cardiovascular Drugs are any medication that has an impact on how the heart and blood arteries work. Among the most commonly prescribed medications in medicine are those that affect the cardiovascular system. Heart failure (insufficient heart output compared to the needs of the rest of the body) and arrhythmias are a few conditions that may benefit from the use of such medications. Other conditions include hypertension (high blood pressure), angina pectoris (chest pain brought on by insufficient blood flow through the coronary arteries to the heart muscle), and hypertension (disturbances of cardiac rhythm). Hypertensive heart disease, rheumatic heart disease, ischemic heart disease, inflammatory heart disease, and cerebrovascular heart disease are a few examples of frequent cardiovascular illnesses. Angina, hypertrophy, and heart failure are the three main complications of hypertensive heart disease. These issues are brought on by high blood pressure in the heart's arteries and muscles, which results in the thickening and expansion of the heart muscle and the constriction of the arteries. There are three basic ways that Cardiovascular Drugs impact how the heart works. They may have an impact on the heart's ability to contract forcefully (inotropic effects), the frequency or intensity of heartbeats (chronotropic effects), or the regularity of heartbeats (rhythmic effects). Cardiovascular Drugs are also known as inotropic agents modify the force at which the heart contracts, affecting cardiac output. If drugs strengthen the heart's contraction, this has a positive inotropic impact. The most significant class of inotropic chemicals are the cardiac glycosides, which are found in the leaves of plants like the foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). Drug Classes-
The effectiveness of cardiac glycosides in treating heart illness was first demonstrated in 1785 by English physician William Withering, who effectively treated heart failure with an extract of foxglove leaves, despite the fact that they have been employed for a variety of purposes throughout history. Digoxin and digitoxin are the two Cardiovascular Drugs that are used therapeutically the most frequently. However, cardiac glycosides have unfavourable side effects. Among them is a propensity for the electrical impulse that causes contraction to be blocked as it travels from the heart's atria to its ventricles (heart block). By causing electrical impulses to be generated elsewhere in the heart beyond the typical pacemaker region, the cells that rhythmically maintain the heartbeat, cardiac glycosides also have a propensity to cause an irregular cardiac rhythm. Ectopic heartbeats are produced as a result of these irregular impulses and are not in time with the typical cardiac rhythm. Ectopic beats on occasion are safe, but if this process persists until the heart's rhythm is completely disrupted (ventricular fibrillation), the heart stops pumping and the patient dies within minutes without resuscitation. Because glycosides have a relatively small window of safety between therapeutic and hazardous levels, caution must be taken when using them. Heart glycosides are thought to strengthen the contraction of cardiac muscle by stowing away and blocking the activity of a membrane enzyme that extrudes sodium ions from the interior of cells. Additionally, Cardiovascular Drugs facilitate the release of calcium from internal reserves, which raises intracellular calcium levels. Since intracellular calcium ions start the shortening of muscle cells, this subsequently increases the force of contraction.
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