Cardiovascular Drugs 

Heart ailments arethe leading diseases in the world today that require urgent medical attentionand proper treatment. Advancement in medical sciences has made it possible toinvent and manufacture many different types of cardiovascular drugs for the treatmentvarious kinds of heart diseases. These drugs are considered to be highlyeffective against the cardiovascular ailments.

Cardiovasculardrugs are medicines that are used to treat different kinds of heart diseases,or related ailment. Some specific drugs that are used in cardiovascularmedicine include:

Anticoagulantsor blood thinners: These drugs help prevent coagulation orclotting of the blood. Whether in injectable form or tablet form ofanticoagulants these drugs include dalteparin, enoxaparin, tinzaparin andheparin.

Antiplateletagents:These drugs help regulate blood clotting and the formation of platelet plugsthat prevent bleeding. Such drugs are aspirin, ticlopidine, lopidogrel anddipyridamole.

Thrombolyticagents: These drugs are used to break up blood clots that have formed and thedrugs are; streptokinase, reteplase and altepase.

Betablockers:These drugs help decrease the heart rate and the final cardiac output. Drugs inthis group are:  atenolol, bisoprolol,metoprolol, propranolol and sotalol.

Calciumchannel blockers: These drugs stop the movement of calciuminto the cells of the heart and blood vessels. Examples of drugs are:amlodipine, felodipine, nifedipine and varapamil.

Diuretics: Thesedrugsincrease the excretion of water and sodium in the urine and helps decreasethe total blood volume. Examples of drugs in this class include chlorothiazide,amiloride, furosemide, bumetanide, indapamide and spironolactone.

Digoxin:  This drug is used to stimulate a heartbeat insome cases of heart failure.

Statins: Thesedrugs help reduce the synthesis of blood cholesterol in the liver. Some of thedrugs are: atorvastatin, lovastatin and simvastatin.