Cardiovascular Pharmacology

Cardiovascular pharmacology is concerned with the basic mechanics of cardiovascular cells as well as how medications affect the heart and vascular system. Any medication that affects the heart and blood arteries is known as a cardiovascular drug. Drugs that affect the cardiovascular system are some of the most commonly prescribed in medicine. Hypertension (high blood pressure), angina pectoris (chest pain caused by insufficient blood flow through the coronary arteries to the heart muscle), heart failure (inadequate output of the heart muscle in comparison to the needs of the rest of the body), and arrhythmias are all disorders in which such drugs may be beneficial (disturbances of cardiac rhythm). The heart's function is influenced by drugs in three ways. They can impact the force with which the heart muscle contracts (inotropic effects), the frequency with which the heart beats, or the heart rate (chronotropic effects), or the regularity with which the heart beats (regularity effects) (rhythmic effects). Numerous debilitating disorders of the heart and/or vasculature have resulted in a significant demand for cardiovascular medications.