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Class III Antiarrhythmic Drugs

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Antiarrhythmic Drugs

Part of the book series: Current Cardiovascular Therapy ((CCT))

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Abstract

Class III antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) predominantly block outward-repolarizing potassium currents and prolong cardiac action potential duration (APD) and refractoriness at concentrations at which they do not affect the sodium channels and, therefore, intracardiac conduction velocity is not significantly affected. The prolongation of the APD and refractoriness, combined with the maintenance of normal conduction velocity, leads to an increase in the wavelength of the cardiac impulse, defined as the distance travelled by the depolarization wave during the functional refractory period, closes the excitable gap in the reentrant circuit and suppresses reentry. Class III AADs include: amiodarone, dofetilide, dronedarone, ibutilide and sotalol.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the Institute of Health Carlos III (PI16/00398 and CB16/11/00303), MINECO (SAF2017-88116-P) and Comunidad de Madrid [ITACA-CM (S2017/BMD-3738)].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, CIBERCV, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Tamargo

  2. Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Caballero & Eva Delpón

  3. CIBERCV, Madrid, Spain

    Ricardo Caballero & Eva Delpón

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  1. Juan Tamargo
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  2. Ricardo Caballero
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  3. Eva Delpón
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Correspondence to Juan Tamargo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cardiology, University Hospital of Sabadell, Institut d’Investigació i Innovació I3PT, University Autonoma of Barcelona, Sabadell, Spain

    Antoni Martínez-Rubio

  2. Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Universidad Complutense, CIBERCV, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Tamargo

  3. “Carol Davila” University of Medicine, Colentina University Hospital, Bucharest, Romania

    Gheorghe- Andrei Dan

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Tamargo, J., Caballero, R., Delpón, E. (2020). Class III Antiarrhythmic Drugs. In: Martínez-Rubio, A., Tamargo, J., Dan, G . (eds) Antiarrhythmic Drugs. Current Cardiovascular Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34893-9_3

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