Inpatient prescribing errors and pharmacist intervention at a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Background: Prescribing errors phenomena are very common within health care practice. These errors could result in adverse events and harm to patients. Pharmacist has an identified role in minimizing and preventing such errors.

Control of intravenous medication wastage at a teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Objective: To investigate the intravenous (IV) medication wastage within the inpatient pharmacy services at a teaching hospital, and to highlight the main causes for such waste and propose a policy to minimize wastage based on the study findings.

Methods: For a one month period starting from September until October 2009, the returned and unused IV medications to the inpatient pharmacy in a teaching hospital at King Khalid University Hospital of King Saud University, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were observed daily. Data were collected and evaluated.

Evaluation of the contribution of smoking to total blood polonium-210 in Saudi population.

A preliminary study of 210Po concentrations in the blood of some smokers and nonsmokers is presented in order to evaluate the contribution of smoking to total blood 210Po in Saudi population. Blood samples were collected from 30 volunteers and analyzed by high resolution alpha-spectrometry using a radiochemical technique. The technique is based on the separation of polonium from other components of the sample by wet ashing with an HNO3/H2O2 oxidizing mixture and spontaneous deposition on a silver disc under the relevant conditions for alpha-particle counting.

The effect of stress on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of glibenclamide in diabetic rats.

Optimal management of the diabetic patient includes normalization of glucose concentration. Attainment of this goal is difficult because stress has long been shown to have a major effect on metabolic activity. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of stress on the pharmacokinetics and dynamics of glibenclamide in normal and diabetic rats.

Bioequivalence and pharmacokinetics of chlorpheneramine in healthy human volunteers.

This study was carried out to evaluate the bioavailability of a new regular release tablet formulation of chlorphenamine (CPA) (Histop) relative to a reference formula (Piriton) using 13 human healthy volunteers. Each one received the two formulations as two 4 mg tablets in a two-way double-blind, crossover study. The concentration of CPA was measured with a sensitive high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).