Diltiazem Pharmacology

Real Life Pharmacology - Pharmacology Education for Health Care Professionals

Eric Christianson, PharmD; Pharmacology Expert and Clinical Pharmacist

Education, Health & Fitness, Medicine

5 • 716 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Diltiazem is a non-dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker that can be used in atrial fibrillation as well as hypertension.

One big downside to diltiazem is that it does have a few drug interactions via CYP3A4.

Aripiprazole, apixaban, and certain statins are all examples of medication that can have concentrations increased by adding diltiazem to a patient's regimen.

Diltiazem works a little differently from dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers (like amlodipine) as it works on the heart AND the vessels.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey all, welcome back to the Real Life Pharmacology podcast.
0:03.8	I'm your host, Eric Christensen.
0:05.5	You can track me down at real life pharmacology.com.
0:09.2	Hit the contact button and shoot me an email if you got any questions, concerns, issues,
0:15.0	or any other reason specifically.
0:17.9	So feel free to do that.
0:19.9	Best way on social media is probably through
0:22.7	LinkedIn. I'm on there usually daily at some point. So that's probably the best way through
0:29.9	social media to connect with me. So that's Eric Christensen, FarmD, BCGP, BCPS. So with that, let's get into the drug of the day, and we're going to talk about Diltiasm.
0:43.8	So Deltiasm, the brand name for Diltiasm is cartazem. Deltiasm is a non-dihydro-idine calcium channel blocker.
0:55.8	Mechanistically, what this medication does,
0:59.9	it essentially blocks calcium, makes sense,
1:03.0	it's right in the name,
1:03.7	from entering voltage-gated channels,
1:07.6	which prevents cell depolarization.
1:11.5	This can cause specifically smooth muscles to relax.
1:18.9	And that smooth muscle is important in the vessels, of course.
1:23.9	But it can also impact the beating of the heart as well.
1:29.7	So it's going to bring both of those things down.
1:33.6	So it's going to bring down heart rate,
1:35.3	and it's going to bring down resistance in the blood vessels.
1:41.1	So it's going to lower pulse, and it's going to lower blood pressure.
	...

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