A mnemonic for pharmacy students to use in pharmacotherapy assessment.

Objective: To introduce pharmacy students to a patient-centered mnemonic to aid them in remembering the most important parameters when assessing a patient's drug therapy and to determine whether use of the device improved students' clinical examination scores.

Design: Second-year pharmacy students were randomized to an intervention group or a control group. A 30-minute presentation on the rationale of the mnemonic and how to apply it to clinical scenarios was given to the intervention group and then a case-based multiple-choice clinical examination was administered.

An Increase in Serum Creatinine after Initiation of Fenofibrate in an HIV-Infected Individual: A Case Report and Review of the Literature.

Hypertriglyceridemia is common among patients infected with HIV and often requires treatment with a triglyceride-lowering medication, such as fenofibrate. Studies have shown that fenofibrate has the potential to increase serum creatinine, a phenomenon that seems to occur more in patients with baseline renal dysfunction or who are on medications that can affect renal hemodynamics. HIV-infected individuals are at an increased risk of developing renal problems and may be a target population for fenofibrate-induced increases in serum creatinine.