title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Glenmark Cardiac Centre, Smt. S.R. Mehta Cardiac Institute, India. Electronic address: amvora@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vora
authors.affiliation: Glenmark Cardiac Centre, Smt. S.R. Mehta Cardiac Institute, India.
authors.forename: Samhita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kulkarni
mesh_terms: D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D057911:Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000806:Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002311:Cardiomyopathy, Dilated / Q000188:drug therapy; D053447:Channelopathies / Q000188:drug therapy; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005395:Fish Oils / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000188:drug therapy; D006801:Humans; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000188:drug therapy
chemical_list: D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists; D057911:Angiotensin Receptor Antagonists; D000806:Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitors; D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents; D005395:Fish Oils
keywords: Beta-blockers; Heart failure; Intracardiac defibrillator; Myocardial infarction; Sudden cardiac death