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Review
. 2017 Sep 3;9(9):e1646.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.1646.

Gastrointestinal Side Effects of Antiarrhythmic Medications: A Review of Current Literature

Waseem Amjad  1 , Waqas Qureshi  2 , Ali Farooq  3 , Umair Sohail  4 , Salma Khatoon  1 , Sarah Pervaiz  5 , Pratyusha Narra  6 , Syeda M Hasan  5 , Farman Ali  7 , Aman Ullah  8 , Steven Guttmann  9
Affiliations
Review

Gastrointestinal Side Effects of Antiarrhythmic Medications: A Review of Current Literature

Waseem Amjad et al. Cureus. .

Abstract

Antiarrhythmic drugs are commonly prescribed cardiac drugs. Due to their receptor mimicry with several of the gastrointestinal tract receptors, they can frequently lead to gastrointestinal side effects. These side effects are the most common reasons for discontinuation of these drugs by the patients. Knowledge of these side effects is important for clinicians that manage antiarrhythmic drugs. This review focuses on the gastrointestinal side effects of these drugs and provides a detailed up-to-date literature review of the side effects of these drugs. The review provides case reports reported in the literature as well as possible mechanisms that lead to gastrointestinal side effects.

Keywords: antiarrhythmic drugs; cardiac drugs; cardiac pharmacology; drug side effects; gastrointestinal side effects.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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