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The treatment of cardiac arrhythmias in recent years has been complicated by the introduction of new diagnostic techniques and medications. The veritable upcoming explosion of new cardiovascular agents must be introduced to the practicing physician in a logical manner. This book introduces the reader to the present concepts of cardiac arrhythmias and serves to present newer anti-arrhythmic drugs.
The first chapter outlines the anti-arrhythmic drugs' comparative cellular electrophysiological basis for their anti-arrhythmic action. These agents are now classified by their cellular mechanism of action. It is clear that they do not form a homogeneous group, but rather have individual effects on various cardiac tissues in normal as well as those that are hypoxic or ischemic. Understanding the fundamental electrophysiologic properties of each agent may be helpful to the physician in the appropriate selection of an agent or combination therapy for resistant tachyarrhythmias.
The balance of this book is divided into