Abstract
As compared with their cardiac side effects, the central nervous system (CNS) side effects caused by the therapeutic use of cardiac glycosides are of relatively minor significance. This difference is partly due to the preferential concentration of the glycosides in the myocardium; the levels reached in the CNS are much lower. Furthermore, such neurologic side effects as do occur are more or less subjective in nature and are not measurable. This is true even of the commonest central nervous side effect, namely nausea and vomiting. Even in cases of unquestionable digitalis poisoning, where the diagnosis has been confirmed by serum assays, the frequency of these symptoms is the subject of widely varying estimates by different authors — from 61% by one group to 25% by another (Beller et al., 1974; Haasis et al., 1975).
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Benthe, H.F. (1981). Effects of Cardiac Glycosides on Central Nervous System. In: Greeff, K. (eds) Cardiac Glycosides. Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology, vol 56 / 1. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-68163-9_21
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