After Diagnosis: 7 Medications Used To Treat A Heart Attack

When a person has suffered a heart attack, doctors will most likely prescribe a medication-based treatment, aside from the obvious lifestyle changes required to prevent such a thing from happening in the future. Heart attacks are mainly caused by coronary artery disease, but other health problems, including elevated blood pressure and diabetes, also pose a risk.

1. Anticoagulants

Anticoagulants are blood thinners, and their primary role is to make sure that the risk of ending up with more blood clots in the coronary arteries is reduced. Many different active substances can be found anticoagulants, such as warfarin, heparin, dabigatran, rivaroxaban.

The name “blood thinner” can be pretty misleading, because these medications don’t actually make blood thinner. It’s also important to note that they won’t dissolve existing blood clots. They are mainly used to help treat heart, lung, and blood vessel-related conditions.

Doctors will prescribe anticoagulants to patients at risk of ending up with blood clots in the coronary arteries, to prevent existing blood clots from getting any bigger and doing more damage, but also to prevent strokes.

2. Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE) Inhibitors

As this occurs, your heart is forced to pump harder to compensate for the missing blood intake. Furthermore, angiotensin II also raises blood pressure. These drugs don’t actually lower angiotensin II levels but cause them to be less efficient.

Some of the generic active substances that are found in ACE inhibitors are valsartan, telmisartan, losartan, candesartan.

3. Beta blockers

Beta blockers will calm down the heart, and by causing it to beat slower, it also reduces blood pressure in the process. They are also used as part of cardiac arrhythmias treatments, but also to treat chest pain and prevent future heart attacks.

Some of the most common beta blockers include sotalol, propranolol, nadolol, metoprolol, acebutolol, and betaxolol.

4. Calcium channel blockers

There are two types of calcium channel blockers. those that act in the short term, and those with longer-lasting effects. The first type has an effect that only lasts a few hours. Some examples of calcium channel blockers include nicardipine, amlodipine, nisoldipine, and verapamil.

This class of drugs is prescribed to treat chest pain, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, arrhythmia, and Raynaud's disease.

5. Vasodilators

Vasodilators are medicines that make your blood vessels dilate and increase the supply of blood to the heart. The purpose of vasodilators is to keep blood pressure under control by opening the narrow arteries that could restrict blood flow.

Calcium channel blockers are an example of dilators, but so are nitrates. The most well-known nitrate is nitroglycerin, which is prescribed to ease chest pain. This chest pain occurs when the blood flow to the heart is restricted by plaque deposits or blood clots. Other common vasodilators include minoxidil, hydralazine, nesiritide, and isosorbide dinitrate.

6. Clot busters

Also referred to as “thrombolytic therapy”, clot-busting drugs are heart medications meant to destroy the already-existing blood clots in the vessels. They are usually administered through an IV line to people who need heart attack damage prevention, to those who want to stop further damages caused by an ischemic stroke, or to patients who have blood clots in other vessels of their body.

This treatment is regularly administered when doctors notice abnormalities during an EKG, particularly when witnessing signs of a STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction). These drugs are usually administered after the first signs of chest pain, regularly within a timeframe of 12 hours.

Alongside thrombolytics, doctors may also give their heart attack patients oral blood thinner, to prevent further blood clots from forming. Because this class of drugs can cause bleeding in the brain, doctors will avoid giving them to patients who:

• Recently had surgery, major injuries, or internal bleeding.
• Have hypertension.
• Have brain abnormalities (such as tumors).
• Have suffered a head injury in the last three months.
• Have peptic ulcer disease.
• Have an internal head bleeding.

The most common thrombolytic agents include rokinase, tenecteplase, reteplase, reteplase, streptokinase, and kabikinase.

7. Statins​

Statins are given to patients who have experienced heart attacks, have coronary artery disease, suffer from chest pain, or have suffered a stroke. Some of the most widely recognized statins include simvastatin, fluvastatin, rosuvastatin, and atorvastatin.

Conclusion

Patients who have recently suffered a heart attack will have to medication as part of their treatment. In emergency cases, doctors may have to perform certain interventions, such as an angioplasty with stent placement, or coronary artery bypass surgery.

Depending on each individual case, some patients may be required to take medical treatment throughout the course of their entire life, alongside the recommended diet and exercise habits that are part of having a healthy heart.  Sometimes, a combination of several drugs might be part of the treatment, such as angina-relieving medication (for those who have chest pain) and blood pressure-lowering medication.