The Med List: ACE Inhibitors

Today I’m starting a new series called The Med List. Once or twice a month, I’d like take a closer look at a single class of home medications and explore the medical implications for our patients who take these meds. The patient’s medications list holds a wealth of information. Prescribed medications tell us about the patient’s medical history. They also give us clues to the patient’s possible current condition and presentation. Some medicines can better explain the clinical picture in front of us and others can be red flags regarding treatment options and the patients likely response. Let’s kick off by looking a little closer at a class of medicines called Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors. These meds are more commonly called ACE Inhibitors. Everyone calls ACE inhibitors ACE inhibitors in much the same way that  everyone calls International Business Machines IBM and everyone calls American Telephone and Telegraph AT&T. ACE Inhibitors are primarily used to treat high blood pressure but they have other uses outside of the hypertensive patient population. They may be taken by congestive heart failure patients to reduce the workload on the left ventricle. They are also prescribed to some renal failure patients and they may be useful in managing a percentage of scleroderma patients. ACE inhibitors impair the body’s ability to constrict peripheral blood vessels by inhibiting the action of an enzyme essential to vas...
Source: The EMT Spot - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs