Smooth muscle also plays an important role in the disease process throughout the body. The use of bronchodilators to relax airway smooth muscle is an important and life-saving treatment in asthmatics. Likewise, medications like metoclopramide can stimulate and promote gastric emptying by increasing smooth muscle signaling. Perhaps one of the most well-known uses of medical therapy and smooth muscle is the use of nitrates in the treatment of ischemic heart disease where nitrates, in combination with ACEI, can improve patient mortality. The singularly large impact that smooth muscle has throughout the body makes it an important topic for medical professionals to understand. As many treatments at their core rely on modifying the signaling pathways that affect smooth muscle.