Uterine Relaxant Drugs
👶🏻 Preterm labor occurs when labor begins too early. If this happens before the 37th week of gestation, the fetal organs, especially the lungs, might not be fully developed.
💊 In these cases, labor can be suppressed with uterine relaxants that relax the uterine muscle and slow down contractions for up to 48 hours. It gives the fetus a few more days in the uterus as a corticosteroid is given to speed up the development of a preterm infant’s lungs. Steroids help the lungs mature and may promote the production of surfactant, a substance that prevents the collapse of alveoli (small sacs in the lungs where the air is exchanged).
💊 Uterine relaxants are also called tocolytics (toco = childbirth, lytic = terminate) and include several different types of drugs.
Uterine Relaxant Drugs Read More »
💊 Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) are used in the treatment of many cardiovascular conditions including hypertension and angina. They are divided into subclasses, non-dihydropyridines, and dihydropyridines and differ by their pharmacokinetic properties, clinical uses, response, and selectivity.
💊 The name of this class, calcium channel blockers, hints at its mechanism of action – inhibits the entry of calcium into cells of the cardiac and peripheral vascular smooth muscles.
🗒️ Calcium entry into L-type channels of cardiac and peripheral vascular cells is needed for them to contract or constrict more strongly.
🗒️ By blocking calcium entry, calcium channel blockers cause:
👉🏻 peripheral vascular smooth muscle relaxation (decreases blood pressure)
👉🏻 decreased myocardial contractility (decrease myocardial demand making them effective in angina)
👉🏻 decrease heart rate and conduction velocity (useful in arrhythmias). 
