Session 9 - Drugs and CVS Flashcards
What are ACE inhibitors?
-Drugs which inhibit angiotensin converting enzyme
What is the function of angiotensin converting enzyme?
-Converts inactive angiotensin I to the active angiotensin II
What is the function of angiotensin II?
- Act on the adrenal cortex to cause aldosterone secretion
- Vasoconstrictor
What are ACE inhibitors used for?
- Heart failure to reduce work load
- Hypertension
How do ACE inhibitors reduce the workload of the heart?
- Prevent the conversion of angiotensin I to angiotensin II
- Decreases Na reabsorption and thus water reabsorption decreasing blood volume-> reduces preload
- prevention of angiotensin II-> decreased vasomotor tone -> reduced afterload
What types of cvs disorders are treated with drugs?
- Heart failure
- Angina
- Hypertension
- Arrythmias
- Risk of thrombus formation
What types of actions can drugs have on the CVS?
- The rate and rhythm of the heart
- The force of myocardial contraction
- Peripheral resistance and bloodflow
- Blood volume
Name the general types of arrythmias/dysrhytmias
- Bradycardia
- Atrial flutter
- Atrial fibrillation
- Tachycardia (ventricular or supraventricular)
- Ventricular fibrillation
What are the three general causes of arrhythmias?
- Ectopic pacemaker activity
- Afterdepolarisations
- Re-entry loop
What are the common causes of ectopic pacemaker activity?
- Damaged area of myocardium becomes depolarised and spontaneously active causing atrial and/or ventricular AP
- Latent pacemaker region activated due to ischaemia (dominates over SAN)
What is an afterdepolarisation?
-Spontaneous, yet triggered, abnormal depolarisation following an action potential
What are the causes of re-entry loops?
- Conduction delay (unidirectional block)
- Accessory pathway (Wolfe-Parkinson-White syndrome)
What is a re-entry loop?
-Conduction block or accessory pathway causes electrical signal to take an alternative route to normal which becomes a self-sustaining circulating pathway as the electrical signal circles back upon itself
What is the establishment of a re-entry loop dependant upon?
-The refractoryness of the cells and the timing as the electrical signal needs to find excitable tissue when it circles back on itself. If it can’t find excitable tissue the loop will not be entered
What are the two types of re-entry loop?
- Global re-entry between atria and ventricles
- Re-entry within a local region
What are the two kinds of afterdepolarisation?
- Delayed after depolarisation
- Early after depolarisation
What type of Arrythmias do afterpolarisations cause?
-Atrial or ventricular tachycardia
What is an early afterdepolarisation? What is there most likely cause?
- Occur during late phase 2 or phase 3 of an AP and usually leads to several rapid AP
- Caused by a prolonged duration of AP
What is a delayed afterdepolarisation? what is the most associated cause?
- Occur when the AP is nearly or fully repolarised
- Associated with high intracellular Ca
What syndrome characteristically has a prolonged action potential?
-Long QT syndrome
How can re-entry loops lead to atrial fibrillation?
-If multiple small re-entry loops appear in the atria
What are the 4 basic classes of antiarrhythmic drugs?
I) Voltage-sensitive Na channel blockers
II) B-blockers
III) Potassium channel blockers
IV) Calcium channel blockers
Name a typical antiarrhythmic class I drug
-Lidocaine
What is lidocaine and how does it work?
- Local anaesthetic
- Blocks voltage gated Na channels in the open or active state, ie it has use dependance
- Then dissociates rapidly in time to block the next AP
When is lidocaine used in the CVS and why?
- Used intravenously following MI if signs of ventricular tachycardia
- Tachycardia caused by areas of damaged myocardium which are depolarised firing AP spontaneously
- Lidocaine blocks the Na as they open upon firing as it is use dependant and prevents automatic firing of AP
Give examples of b-blockers (class II antiarrhythmics)
- Propranolol
- Atenolol
What is the function of b-blockers?
-Block sympathetic action of b1-Adrenoreceptors in the heart and thus decrease HR and reduce the force of contraction
How do b-blockers decrease the HR and reduce force of contraction?
- NA acts on b1 adrenoreceptors which have Gas-> Gas stimulates AC and increases cAMP -> cAMP increased opening of HCN channels increasing slope -> increases HR
- Also increasing cAMP activates PKA which increases Ca entry during AP plateau, b1 adrenoreceptor activation also increases Ca uptake into SR and increases sensitivity of contractile machinery to Ca -> increases force of contraction
- blocking sympathetic activity will therefore reduce HR and contraction