In this next lesson in our collection of lessons on ICU drips, we take a look at a very diverse group of medications called the antiarrhythmic medications. These medications have the purpose of correcting abnormal rhythms in our patients and do so in many different ways.

In order to better understand how these medications do what they do, we take some time to review some foundational information to lay the ground work for the next lesson where we start to take a look at the drugs in this category. We start off with a quick review of the electrical conduction system of the heart, as well as how this relates to cardiac myocytes and what actually happens with them when they receive a signal from this conduction system.

From there we move on to take a look at the main driving force of our rhythms and contractions, the action potential. We show the difference between the 2 action potentials that play a role in all of this. First we talk about the pacemaker action potential and explain what is happening at each part and how this ultimately leads to the automaticity we see in these nodal cells. Next we talk about the very different myocyte action potential. We again cover what is happening at each point with this action potential but also point out the defining characteristic that we see, the plateau phase, and ultimately how this plays a vital role in our effective contraction.

Finally we do a quick introduction to the 5 different classes of antiarrhythmic medications in preparation for the 2nd lesson on antiarrhythmics in which we take a deep dive in to these classes.

Hopefully at the end of this lesson you will have a solid understanding of this foundational information and how this stuff plays an important role in the functioning of our heart. This information and understanding will be valuable in the next lesson.

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Don't forget to check out the playlist for this series of lessons here:    • ICU Drips  

Also check out these other great lessons and series of lessons below!

Hemodynamics Principals:    • Hemodynamic Principals  
Shock:    • Shock  
Arterial Blood Gases:    • Arterial Blood Gases (ABGs)  
ECG/EKG Rhythm Interpretation:    • ECG/EKG Interpretation  
Heart Failure:    • Heart Failure  
Endocrine System:    • Endocrine System  

Blood Tubes Order of Draw:    • Order of Draw and Additives | Blood C...  
Glasgow Coma Scale:    • Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) Assessment  

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Watch:    • whogaux  i don't care | Trap | NCS ...  
Free Download / Stream: http://ncs.io/idontcare

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#ICUDrips #AntiArrhythmic #ICUAdvantage