Pharmacists' use of social media as aiding tools for reading and interpreting illegible prescriptions.

Background: The ability to read and interpret a prescription is a crucial and rate-determining step for the provision of correct medicine(s), appropriate instructions to patients and for good practice of pharmacy in general. However, both in public and private healthcare settings, pharmacists continue to receive numerous illegible handwritten prescriptions. This is time consuming, and it poses serious legal and health consequences if prescriptions are read incorrectly, resulting in wrong medicines being dispensed.

"I may be essential but someone has to look after my kids": women physicians and COVID-19.

Objectives: This paper analyzes results from focus groups held with women physicians in British Columbia which explored questions around how gender norms and roles influenced their experiences during COVID-19.

Methods: Four virtual focus groups were organized between July and September 2020. Participants (n = 27) were voluntarily recruited.

Quantitative MRI in the very preterm brain: assessing tissue organization and myelination using magnetization transfer, diffusion tensor and T₁ imaging.

Magnetization transfer ratio (MTR), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) parameters and T(1) relaxometry values were used to create parametric maps characterizing the tissue microstructure of the neonatal brain in infants born very premature (24-32 gestational weeks) and scanned at preterm and term equivalent age. Group-wise image registration was used to determine anatomical correspondence between individual scans and the pooled parametric data at the preterm and term ages. These parametric maps showed distinct contrasts whose interrelations varied across brain regions and between the preterm and term period.

Late recurrence of large peri-stomal metastasis following abdomino-perineal resection of rectal cancer.

Background: Cutaneous metastasis from colorectal cancer after excision of the primary is a rare occurrence and presents as cutaneous or subcutaneous nodules or as a rash commonly on the anterior abdominal wall.

Case Presentation: This is a case description of the management of a large fungating peristomal cutaneous metastasis occurring 14 years after abdomino-perineal excision of the primary cancer. The gross appearance initially suggested possibility of a true metachronous cancer with peristomal spread.

Semen and serum pharmacokinetics of zidovudine and zidovudine-glucuronide in men with HIV-1 infection.

Study Objective: To characterize the concentration-time profiles of zidovudine and zidovudine-glucuronide in semen and serum of men infected with the human immunodeficiency-1 virus (HIV-1).

Design: Open-label observational study.

Setting: University-affiliated teaching hospital and research center.

Comparison of a neural network approach with five traditional methods for predicting creatinine clearance in patients with human immunodeficiency virus infection.

Study Objective: To compare the results of an artificial neural network approach with those of five published creatinine clearance (Cl(cr)) prediction equations and with the measured (true) Cl(cr) in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

Design: Six-month prospective study.

Settings: Two university medical centers.

Alcohol use, drug use, and sexual activity among pharmacy students at three institutions.

Objective: To determine alcohol and drug use and sexual activity among pharmacy students at three colleges of pharmacy.

Design And Setting: A survey to obtain self-reported information on alcohol and drug use, and sexual activity was administered to professional pharmacy students at the University of Iowa (UI), Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and Texas Southern University.

Main Outcome Measures: Information on sexual activity and condom use, alcohol and drug consumption, and the effect of alcohol on unintended sexual activity.

Poor correlation between published methods to predict creatinine clearance and measured creatinine clearance in asymptomatic HIV infected individuals.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive ability of six published creatinine clearance (CCr) equations in healthy human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected individuals. A 24-h urine collection to determine CCr was done on an out-patient basis in 18 subjects. Predicted CCr was compared with the measured values, and the predictive performance was assessed with percentage mean error (bias) and percentage root mean error (precision).

Effect of 'Compound R' on thermal burn and full-depth wound contracture in fuzzy rats.

We evaluated the efficacy of Compound R emulsion on wound contraction in fuzzy rats. While the rats were under anesthesia, two mirror-image burn wounds were inflicted on the depilated back skin of each. Wounds were assigned randomly to treatment or placebo (oil), and the wound-scar areas were measured when they healed.

Strategies for control of zidovudine concentrations in serum.

There are several clinical scenarios in which knowledge of zidovudine disposition may be important. This study evaluated the clinical utility of pharmacokinetic parameters for zidovudine derived from sparse serum concentration data obtained in an outpatient setting. Twelve human immunodeficiency virus-infected participants had two serum zidovudine concentrations determinations obtained on two different clinic visits, 2 to 38 days apart.

The effect of cimetidine and ranitidine administration with zidovudine.

Study Objective: To evaluate the possibility of a drug interaction with zidovudine and histamine2-receptor antagonists in individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.

Design: Randomized crossover study.

Setting: University-affiliated research center.

Recombinant erythropoietin for zidovudine-induced anemia in AIDS.

Recombinant erythropoietin (Epogen, Amgen Pharmaceuticals; Procrit, Amgen Pharmaceuticals, distributed by Ortho Biotech) is approved for use in anemia associated with HIV infection and treatment. The recommended starting dose is 100 IU/kg iv or sc 3 times per week. Current evidence suggests that anemia in zidovudine-treated patients may be a result of insufficient quantities of erythropoietin, bone marrow unresponsiveness to the hormone, or HIV infection.

Effect of erythromycin on ethanol's pharmacokinetics and perception of intoxication.

Study Objective: To determine the effect of erythromycin on ethanol's pharmacokinetics and perception of intoxication.

Design: Double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

Setting: A clinical research center.

Evaluation of traditional African medicine "Compound R" for the treatment of thermal burn wounds in fuzzy rats.

The efficacy of an oil-in-water emulsion of a traditional Kenyan medicine, Compound R, on thermal burn wounds in fuzzy rats is reported. The burn wounds were inflicted on the depilated skin of rats with a 2 cm diameter aluminum template heated at 65 degrees C. Mean +/- SD days to healing (complete closure) were 9.

Effects of long-term drugs on alfentanil clearance in patients undergoing renal transplantation.

Although patients in renal failure frequently take several drugs on a long-term basis, drug-induced alterations in alfentanil metabolism have not been examined as a possible source of variability in alfentanil clearance in this population. We compared the pharmacokinetics of alfentanil during renal transplantation in seven patients receiving and six not receiving long-term drug therapy. After the rapid intravenous injection of alfentanil 100 micrograms/kg during isoflurane anesthesia, plasma concentrations were measured at intervals up to 6 hours by radioimmunoassay.