Global Cardiology Summit

Cardiovascular Pharmacology

Cardiovascular Pharmacology deals with the study of the effects of drugs upon the heart or circulatory system. It mainly contributes to the safety profile of potential new drugs and provides pharmacological data that can be used for optimization of further compounds and the ultimate selection of compounds suitable for clinical development. The cardiac drugs affect the function of the heart in three main ways. They can affect the force of contraction of the heart muscle (inotropic effects), they can affect the frequency of the heart beat or heart rate (chronotropic effects) or they can affect the regularity of the heart beat (rhythmic effects). Drugs can also affect blood vessels by altering the state of compression of the smooth muscle in the vessel wall, altering its diameter and accordingly directing the volume of blood stream. Such medications are classified as vasoconstrictors or vasodilators depending on the smooth muscle lining contraction and relaxation respectively.