Pharmacology of antiarrhythmic drugs in elderly patients.
Clin Geriatr Med. 2012 Nov;28(4):575-615
Authors: Frishman WH, Aronow WS
Abstract
Bradyarrhythmias and tachyarrhythmias are common in elderly patients as a result of aging and acquired cardiac disease. Antiarrhythmic drugs are effective in elderly patients for the management of supraventricular and ventricular arrhythmias; however, dosing of drugs must be performed with care because of age-related changes in drug pharmacokinetics, the presence of concomitant disease, and frequent drug-drug interactions. Despite the large number of antiarrhythmic drugs having different electrophysiologic actions, as described in this article, only the ?-blockers have been shown to be effective in reducing mortality and to lack proarrhythmic actions.
PMID: 23101572 [PubMed - in process]