Sodium channel blockade?!
Question: does sodium channel blockade speed the heart up or slow it down(i mean the cardiac sodium channels ) or does it make it beat erratically?
Answers: does sodium channel blockade speed the heart up or slow it down(i mean the cardiac sodium channels ) or does it make it beat erratically?
Sodium channel blockers are widely used clinically to treat neuropathic pain (nerve pain). Lidocaine is an example of a drug used to numb local injection sites. There are very few side effects with this use. These drugs are also used in certain types of cardiac arrhythmias. In laymen's terms, the effect of the drug is to interrupt the timing of the electrical impulses which cause the abnormal beating of the heart. To the extent that most of the cardiac arrhythmias involve very rapid, and often irregular, beating of the heart, the net effect of effective treatment would be a slowing of the heart rate. It is a documented side effect however that it can produce some tachycardia which is simply a rapid heart beat; however far slower than the typical arrhythmias. If you feel any prolonged racing of the heart, call your doctor right away. You should be checking in with him/her regularly in any event to report any side effects that were not discussed with you. Good luck.
You should really have your cardiologist answer this question because sodium channel blockers are pretty complicated for the average person. It depends on the class of SCB that you're talking about; there are three classes.
In short, this is what they do: "The faster a cell depolarizes, the more rapidly adjacent cells will become depolarized, leading to a more rapid regeneration and transmission of action potentials between cells. Therefore, blocking sodium channels reduces the velocity of action potential transmission within the heart (reduced conduction velocity; negative dromotropy). This can serve as an important mechanism for suppressing tachycardias that are caused by abnormal conduction (e.g., reentry mechanisms). By depressing abnormal conduction, reentry mechanisms can be interrupted."
In simpler terms, they help decrease irregular heart beats by slowing the heart rate down and controlling the irregular conduction.