Personal and professional development activity tracking in a pharmacy curriculum.

Background And Purpose: Personal and professional development (PPD) is an essential focus of pharmacy school curriculum in developing future pharmacists. This manuscript describes the creation, implementation, and data collection of a PPD Activity Tracker in a pharmacy curriculum.

Educational Activity And Setting: Previously, in "Standards 2016" and currently in "Standards 2025", colleges of pharmacy are tasked with documenting how students achieve PPD throughout their academic careers.

Peer review of presentations through examination software.

Background And Purpose: Peer evaluations are often utilized to allow student pharmacists practice in giving and receiving feedback. In a small class setting, these can easily be completed and feedback distributed quickly. However, in the larger class setting, reviewing and disseminating peer feedback can be quite cumbersome, especially if using paper format.

Duration of therapy with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease as reported in the literature.

Objective: To review the literature regarding the treatment duration of acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (AChEI) therapy for mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients.

Data Sources: A literature search was performed using MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstracts, and Clinical Key (all through May 31, 2013) with the search terms Alzheimer's disease, cholinesterase inhibitors, dementia, treatment and duration, with limits to human, clinical, and observational trials, and English studies; no limits were placed on publication dates.

Study Selection And Data Extraction: Based on the study selection, 40 studies were identified.

Recent advances in the treatment of life-threatening, invasive fungal infections.

Introduction: Invasive fungal infections (IFIs) pose significant morbidity and are often life-threatening to many high-risk patients. Timely diagnosis and treatment of these infections with optimal therapy is imperative.

Areas Covered: Advances have been made in diagnostic biomarkers such as peptide nucleic acid fluorescent in situ hybridization, β-D-glucan and galactomannan, although more research is needed in this area to assist with both diagnosis and monitoring for improvement of IFI management.

Comparing point-of-care A1C and random plasma glucose for screening diabetes in migrant farm workers.

Objective: To compare point-of-care (POC) glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C) and random plasma glucose (RPG) as a POC screening tool for prediabetes and diabetes in migrant farm workers of eastern North Carolina.

Design: Prospective, observational, single-center study.

Setting: Federally qualified community health center in eastern North Carolina, from August to October 2011.

Documenting the use of calcium supplements with oral bisphosphonates.

Objective: Patients receiving an oral bisphosphonate for treatment of osteopenia or osteoporosis without adequate calcium intake are not optimally treated. Physicians prescribing bisphosphonates may not consistently document calcium supplementation recommendations.

Design: This is a retrospective chart review of osteoporotic or osteopenic outpatients with an active prescription for an oral bisphosphonate.

Potential role of tigecycline in the treatment of community-acquired bacterial pneumonia.

Tigecycline is a member of the glycylcycline class of antimicrobials, which is structurally similar to the tetracycline class. It demonstrates potent in vitro activity against causative pathogens that are most frequently isolated in patients with community-acquired bacterial pneumonia (CABP), including (but not limited to) Streptococcus pneumoniae (both penicillin-sensitive and -resistant strains), Haemophilus influenzae and Moraxella catarrhalis (including β-lactamase-producing strains), Klebsiella pneumoniae, and 'atypical organisms' (namely Chlamydophila pneumoniae, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, and Legionella pneumophila). Comparative randomized clinical trials to date performed in hospitalized patients receiving tigecycline 100 mg intravenous (IV) × 1 and then 50 mg IV twice daily thereafter have demonstrated efficacy and safety comparable to the comparator agent.

Overview of treatment options for invasive fungal infections.

The introduction of several new antifungals has significantly expanded both prophylaxis and treatment options for invasive fungal infections (IFIs). Relative to amphotericin B deoxycholate, lipid-based formulations of amphotericin B have significantly reduced the incidence of nephrotoxicity, but at a significant increase in drug acquisition cost. Newer, broad-spectrum triazoles (notably voriconazole and posaconazole) have added significantly to both the prevention and treatment of IFIs, most notably Aspergillus spp.

Echinocandin pharmacodynamics: review and clinical implications.

Echinocandins have made a significant impact in the treatment of select invasive fungal infections, most notably invasive candidiasis and aspergillosis. However, treatment outcomes for such infections are still less than optimal, prompting an examination of dosing and administration techniques in an attempt to exploit known pharmacodynamic properties and improve outcomes. Echinocandins generally exhibit concentration-dependent, fungicidal activity against Candida spp.

Hypoglycemia associated with the use of levofloxacin.

Purpose: A case of hypoglycemia associated with levofloxacin is reported.

Summary: A 58-year-old Caucasian man was admitted to the hospital for a heart failure (HF) exacerbation with suspected community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). His medical history included HF (left ventricular ejection fraction, 25-35%), hypertension, and type 2 diabetes mellitus.

Tigecycline in the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal and complicated skin and skin structure infections.

Tigecycline, a glycylcycline related to the tetracycline class of antibiotics, represents a new option for the treatment of complicated intra-abdominal and complicated skin and skin structure infections. It displays favorable activity in vitro against the most common causative Gram-positive, Gram-negative and anaerobic pathogens. In addition, tigecycline demonstrates activity against drug-resistant pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, vancomycin-resistant enterococci, and organisms (such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae) producing extended-spectrum beta-lactamases.

Multidrug-resistant Ewingella americana: a case report and review of the literature.

Objective: To describe and report a case of multidrug-resistant Ewingella americana associated with exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Case Summary: A 77-year-old female presented to her physician with shortness of breath and an initial assessment of pneumonia. Her past medical history included COPD, Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection, recent Mycobacterium avium infection, and Crohn's disease.

Written versus oral recommendations made by pharmacy students during internal medicine rotations.

Background: Pharmacy students use a variety of methods to communicate with physicians during clinical rotations regarding pharmacotherapy concerns. Documented acceptance rates for oral or written recommendations, when studied individually, range between 64% and 95%.

Objective: To compare the acceptance rates of written versus oral recommendations made by pharmacy students on internal medicine (IM) rotations.

Successful treatment of Klebsiella rhinoscleromatis bacteremia with levofloxacin.

A 71-year-old Caucasian woman was admitted to the hospital with right-sided weakness and slurred speech. Glioblastoma multiforme was diagnosed, and resection of the tumor was performed. During the patient's hospitalization, blood and urine cultures were obtained after her temperature rose to 103.

Recent advances in the epidemiology, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of fungal pneumonia.

Although pneumonia caused by fungi is not a common occurrence in the general population, disease in an enlarging immunocompromised population is encountered with increasing frequency. Fungal pneumonias are most frequently caused by Aspergillus spp., dimorphic fungi and Cryptococcus neoformans.