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Amiodarone is an antiarrhythmic medication used to treat and prevent a number of types of cardiac dysrhythmias. [4] This includes ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, and wide complex tachycardia, atrial fibrillation, and paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. [4]
Drugs like amiodarone, diltiazem, verapamil and metoprolol are frequently given before electrical cardioversion to decrease the heart rate, stabilize the patient and increase the chance that cardioversion is successful. There are various classes of agents that are most effective for pharmacological cardioversion.
Compounds that prolong the action potential: matching the modern classification, with the key drug example being amiodarone, and a surgical example being thyroidectomy. This was not a defining characteristic in an earlier review by Charlier et al. (1968), [ 17 ] but was supported by experimental data presented by Vaughan Williams (1970).
Defibrillation threshold indicates the minimum amount of energy needed to return normal rhythm to a heart that is beating in a cardiac dysrhythmia. Typical examples are the minimum amount of energy, expressed in joules , delivered by external defibrillator paddles or pads, required to break atrial fibrillation and restore normal sinus rhythm .
Amiodarone is also safe to use in individuals with cardiomyopathy and atrial fibrillation, to maintain normal sinus rhythm. Amiodarone prolongation of the action potential is uniform over a wide range of heart rates, so this drug does not have reverse use-dependent action. Amiodarone was the first agent described in this class. [4]
Those who wish to have further treatment can choose to take long term antiarrhythmic medication. The first line drugs are calcium channel antagonists and beta blockers, with second line agents including flecainide, amiodarone, and occasionally digoxin. These drugs are moderately effective at preventing further episodes but need to be taken long ...
However, neither lidocaine nor amiodarone, in those who continue in ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation despite defibrillation, improves survival to hospital discharge, despite both equally improving survival to hospital admission. [112] Following an additional round of CPR and defibrillation, amiodarone can also be administered.
Bardy GH, Lee KL, Mark DB, et al. for the Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial (SCD-HeFT) Investigators. Amiodarone or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator for congestive heart failure. N Engl J Med 2005; 352:225–237; Stevenson W, Chaitman B, Ellenbogen K, Epstein A, Gross W, Hayes D, Strickberger S, Sweeney M (2004).