Study this Digoxin, Digitoxin mnemonic and other mnemonics with Pixorize.
Cardiac glycosides including digoxin, digitalis, and digitoxin are drugs that work in two ways.
First, they can inhibit the sodium/potassium pump in the heart, causing sodium levels to rise. The increased sodium levels inside the cell indirectly activate a sodium/calcium exchanger to bring more calcium into the cell. More calcium causes more contractility in cardiac muscle. This increased contractility is useful in the treatment of heart failure.
Second, digoxin can increase vagal tone, which acts mainly on the pacemaker SA and AV nodes to slow conduction. By slowing conduction down the AV node, digoxin is a useful drug in rate control for atrial fibrillation.
Note that these drugs are rarely administered first-line, mainly due to their narrow therapeutic windows. Patients taking these drugs often experience toxicity, which includes symptoms like disturbed color vision, AV heart block, as well as non-specific GI and neurological symptoms.
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