Introduction: Antiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) show a narrow therapeutic range and marked intersubject variability in pharmacokinetics (PK), which may lead to inappropriate dosing and drug toxicity.
Areas covered: The aim of the present review is to describe PK properties of AADs, discussing the main changes in different clinical scenarios, such as the elderly and patients with obese, chronic kidney, liver, and cardiac disease, in order to guide their right prescription in clinical practice.
Expert opinion: There are few data about PK properties of AADs in a special population or challenging clinical setting. The use and dose of AADs is commonly based on physicians' clinical experience observing the clinical effects rather than being personalized on the individual patients PK profiles. More and updated studies are needed to validate a patient centered approach in the pharmacological treatment of arrhythmias based on patients' clinical features, including pharmacogenomics, and AAD pharmacokinetics.
Keywords: Antiarrhythmic drug; arrhythmia; pharmacogenomics; pharmacokinetics; therapeutic drug monitoring.