Cardiotropic

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Having a specific attraction to or effect upon heart tissue, as with certain drugs or toxins that act mainly on the cardiac muscle
2. Describing a substance that selectively targets or influences the heart rather than other organs in the body
3. Acting primarily on the heart, especially said of medicines or agents whose effects are concentrated in cardiac tissue

Etymology: Cardiotropic is a technical coinage built from two Greek elements, and its meaning follows directly from them. "Kardia" is the Greek word for heart, and "-tropos" comes from "trepein", meaning to turn or turn toward. Put together, the word describes something that turns toward or acts upon the heart. The suffix "-tropic" is a productive scientific formation found in many English terms, such as "heliotropic" (turning toward the sun) and "neurotropic" (acting on nerve tissue). Medical and biological writers attach it to a body-part prefix to describe a substance, agent or organism with a particular affinity for that tissue. A cardiotropic drug, for example, is one that targets the heart rather than acting broadly across the body. Because the word was built in modern scientific English from classical roots, the ancient Greeks would not have recognised it as a single term. Its parts are old, but the combined word is a product of later medical vocabulary.