Nursing Pharmacology Chapter 8:   Antiarrhythmic Agents

Electrophysiology and Cardiac Arrhythmias

• Cardiac Rhythm

  • Normal rate: 60-100 beats per minute

  • Impulse Propagation: sinoatrial node to the  atrioventricular (AV node) to the His-Purkinje followed by distribution throughout the ventricle

  • Normal AV nodal delay (0.15 seconds) which is sufficient to allow atrial ejection of blood into the ventricles

  • Definition: arrhythmia: a cardiac depolarization different from above sequence.

    •  Abnormal origination (not SA nodal)

    •  Abnormal rate/regularity

    •  Abnormal conduction characteristics

Hondeghem, L.M. and Roden, D.M., "Agents Used in Cardiac Arrhythmias", in Basic and Clinical Pharmacology, Katzung, B.G., editor, Appleton & Lange, 1998, pp 216-241.