The Effect of Prerequisite Pharmacodynamics Course Timing on Student Performance in Pharmacotherapy Courses.

Objective. To evaluate the impact that decreasing the time from 12 to three months between prerequisite pharmacodynamics courses and their corresponding pharmacotherapy courses had on overall student performance in the pharmacotherapy courses measured by course examination scores. Methods.

Evaluation of methadone absorption after topical administration to hospice patients.

Context: Increased use of methadone (MTD) applied topically as an extemporaneously compounded gel was documented on routine review of medication profiles of hospice patients. A literature search did not identify any published clinical studies assessing the systemic absorption or clinical efficacy of MTD administered topically to intact skin for systemic pain.

Objectives: To compare serum MTD levels achieved after topical and oral administration to hospice patients.

Temozolomide-induced severe myelosuppression: analysis of clinically associated polymorphisms in two patients.

Genotyping of putative determinants of temozolomide (TMZ)-induced life-threatening bone marrow suppression was performed in two patients with glioma treated with adjuvant TMZ and radiation therapy. DNA was extracted from the patients' mononuclear cells and genotyping of O-methylguanine-DNA-methyltransferase (MGMT), multidrug resistance (MDR1; also known as ABCB1), NQO1, and GSTP1 genes and analysis for the epigenetic silencing of specific MGMT gene promoters were carried out to evaluate the possible genetic determinants of increased risk of severe TMZ-induced myelosuppression. Although both patients were heterozygous for all ABCB1 single nucleotide polymorphisms and for rs12917 and rs1803965 in the MGMT gene, patient 1 was heterozygous for rs1695 in GSTP1 and rs2308327 in the MGMT gene.

A hospice-based advanced pharmacy experience.

Objective: To evaluate a hospice-based advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE).

Design: Two years of data gathered from student evaluation forms and reflective journals were analyzed.

Assessment: Students completed reflective journals and expressed a high level of satisfaction with the hospice-based learning experience.

The conversion challenge: from intrathecal to oral morphine.

Numerous articles have described the methodologies used and outcomes achieved with the intrathecal (IT) administration of morphine for pain. However, only one case report has been published that describes converting a patient's IT morphine to an oral regimen. This case report describes the experience of converting a patient's IT morphine to oral morphine and discusses the scarcity of published data to validate suggested equianalgesic intraspinal morphine recommendations.

Clinical applications of colony-stimulating factors: a historical perspective.

The development of the therapeutic roles of filgrastim and sargramostim over the past decade is reviewed. Filgrastim, a recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF), and sargramostim, a recombinant granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), have been available in the United States for over a decade to treat various types of neutropenia. In addition, data are available to support their use in a variety of clinical settings.