Digoxin Mechanism of Action

There are two main mechanisms involved in the pharmacology of digoxin that are relevant with the improvement of heart function in heart failure patients. The first mechanism being the reversible inhibition of Na-K ATPase (sodium pump) that results in elevated levels of intracellular sodium which leads to increase in the levels of calcium in the myocardial cells that result in improvement of contractile force of heart and thus improved LV ejection fraction. The second mechanism is the decrease in heart rate that occurs due to SA and AV node effects that are caused by vagus nerve stimulation (PNS stimulation). Text Reference: https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB00390 Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digoxin#/media/File:Digoxin.svg