Author Archives: Cait E. Kulig, PharmD, HF-Cert

Today we’re going to discuss a mainstay of treatments for patients with atrial fibrillation – anticoagulation. If you haven’t done so already, I’d really recommend taking a quick look at my Atrial Fibrillation: An Overview post, or else you might find yourself a little lost, since I’m not taking time here to review basic definitionsContinue reading “Atrial Fibrillation: Chronic Anticoagulation 💊”

Today it’s time to talk about the most commonly encountered arrhythmia you’ll see in clinical practice – atrial fibrillation. There’s actually quite a lot to unpack here which is why I decided to break down Afib into three posts: an overview (hi, you’re looking at it rn), then treatments of the afib itself, and lastlyContinue reading “Atrial Fibrillation: Overview”

Welcome back to the blog 👋👋👋. Today we’re going to discuss a classic med that, despite decades of advancement in medicine, probably isn’t going anywhere anytime soon – warfarin. If you’ve followed this blog for a bit, you’ll know that I’m kinda into history and learning about where stuff comes from. Let’s get into it.Continue reading “Warfarin: The Classic Anticoagulant”

Hey all. Figured it would be a good time to talk about something that I used to hate – the cardiac action potential and ion movement through the ventricular myocytes. This will be key when we start talking about some of our antiarrhythmic agents (bum bum buuuuummmmmmmm)! First thing’s first. Let’s start with the basics.Continue reading “The Cardiac Conduction Cycle and the Cardiac Action Potential ⚡⚡”

Hey guys! Today’s talk is not specific to cardiology, but a talk I find myself having often with learners that will help them no matter what field they go into. Let’s talk a little drug lit today. I know what you’re probably thinking: But seriously, this stuff ends up being quite important – and interestingContinue reading “Drug Lit: Composite Endpoints and Subgroup Analysis – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”

Hey fam 👋. I’ve been thinking about doing a discussion on warfarin but after some thinking, decided that it might be best to discuss the INR lab test before delving into the world of warfarin. I don’t know about you, but when I was in school, the only thing I knew about the INR isContinue reading “What is the INR?”

Welcome back to another post – today we will be talking about our first anticoagulant class: our heparinoids. We will be focusing on the basics – aka mechanism of action – of these agents. This talk will be short but also v. important in our understanding of anticoagulants. Prereadings: To get the most out ofContinue reading “A CARDS RX Explained Classic: Heparinoids MOA”

Hey everyone. Today I wanted to talk in a very basic way about how clots are formed and clarify a little misconception between the terms “antithrombotics”, “anticoagulants”, “thrombolytics”, and “antiplatelets”. CARDS often goes hand-in-hand with the use of all the above classes of meds (^^^) and before we go ahead and delve into them, IContinue reading “Clot Formation 101: An Overview”

Today we’re going to focus all of our time looking at the basics of two drug classes, look at their mechanisms of actions, effects, side effects – all that good stuff. Today’s “classic” is on Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACE-Is) and Angiotensin II Receptor Blockers (ARBs). Important Pre-Readings: In order the really get the mostContinue reading “A CARDS RX Explained Classic: ACE-Is and ARBs”

*Now ✨updated✨ with the latest 2022 ACC/AHA/HFSA Guidelines* Welcome back to the blog. Today we’re going to be discussing how we treat chronic diastolic heart failure, also known as heart failure with preserved ejection fraction or HFpEF. What is HFpEF? A quick review. If you haven’t read my post “Heart Failure – Why it’s anContinue reading “Treatment of Chronic HFpEF (Diastolic HF)”