- Navigate
- Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients
Used commonly in the treatment of CHF or Congestive Heart failure, Carvedilol is the common drug of choice. Common trade names under which the medicine is marketed include Eucardic, Coreg, Dilatrend, Carloc etc.
Most norepinephrine reactants will activate nerve endings, which control heart muscle movements. These activate the nerves by binding to beta 1 and 2 receptors. Carvedilol drug works by blocking the binding of the norepinephrine to these receptors. This way, the heart rhythm slows down and the pumping force of the heart muscles is also reduced. This helps to reduce the blood pressure in the patient as well as curtail chances of a heart failure. The norepinephrine binds to alpha 1 receptors located over blood vessels.
This causes constriction of the blood vessels, thereby raising pressure of the blood. Carvedilol works by blocking binding to these receptors on the blood vessels, thereby helping reduce blood pressure as well.
Compared to other drugs, which work in a similar fashion, Carvedilol does not have much inotropic effects or inverse agonist effects. This entails that the drug Carvedilol does not worsen existing heart failure symptoms like some other drugs do. However, there is no scientific evidence to support the fact that Carvedilol is more preferred compared to other beta blocking drugs.
The trade name of Carvedilol is known as Coreg. This tablet is oval in shape and white colored. It contains differing concentrations of Carvedilol namely in 3.125, 6.25, 12.5 and 25 m dosages.
Other than the 3.25 mg dosage version, the rest are marketed under brand name Tiltab. Apart from the active pharmaceutical ingredients of Carvedilol that these tablets contain, these also contain non-active substances such as crospovidone, silicon dioxide, hypromellose, magnesium stearate, lactose, polysorbate 80, sucrose, povidone, titanium dioxide, polyethylene glycol etc.
Carvedilol is a whitish powder and can be easily soluble or dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide. It is also easily soluble in methanol as well as methylene chloride. Isopropanol and ethanol can partially dissolve the drug Carvedilol. Ethyl ether can also partially dissolve Carvedilol. However, these active pharmaceutical ingredients cannot be dissolved in water, intestinal fluids or gastric fluids.
Carvedilol is typically administered in oral form and should be under strict supervision of a qualified physician. Typically, initial dosages start with a 3.25 concentration of Carvedilol spread out twice a day for a period of 2 weeks. If the patient is able to tolerate the medicine, higher doses of 6.25 and slowly increasing to 25 mg maybe administered. If a higher dose cannot be tolerated by the patient’s body then lower doses must be administered.
Common side effects associated with intake of these active pharmaceutical ingredients include dizziness, lightheadedness, fluid retention, bradycardia, in which the rate of heart beats are lower than 55 beats in a minute as well as other side effects. If the person experiences fluid retention or dizziness then dosage need not be altered. However, in cases of bradycardia, the dosage definitely needs reduction. This is why Carvedilol is strictly administered only under doctor supervision.