Strategies to reduce medication errors in ambulatory practice.

Medication errors generally refer to mistakes made in the processes of ordering, transcribing, dispensing, administering or monitoring of pharmaceutical agents used in clinical practice. The Institute of Medicine report, To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, has helped raise public awareness surrounding the issue of patient safety within our hospitals. A number of legislative and regulatory steps have resulted in hospital authorities putting in place various systems to allow for error reporting and prevention.

Alterations of venous drug reactivity in humans: acquired and genetic factors.

Until recently, studies dealing with veins have almost always been the neglected part of vascular research. Recent data show an increasing rate of venous disease, and increasing evidence supports a role for veins in systemic diseases. The authors discuss and comment on findings of recent studies on venous drug reactivity.

Paradoxically enhanced bradykinin-induced venodilation in young, healthy, short-term smokers.

Bradykinin is a nonapeptide, whose mechanism of vasodilation is mediated chiefly through the release of endothelium-derived relaxing factor (EDRF). Diminished vasodilatory response to EDRF has been demonstrated in many pathologic states such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes, and long-term, heavy smoking. We studied whether the diminished EDRF-mediated vasodilatory response seen in chronic diseases can be demonstrated in young, clinically healthy smokers.

Decreased beta2 adrenergic mediated venodilatation in Native Americans.

Background: A considerable body of research has been accumulated regarding the pathogenesis and treatment of hypertension in Whites (Caucasians) and in Blacks. This research has led to more effective therapies geared specifically towards these ethnic groups. Unfortunately, very little information is available regarding the pathogenesis of hypertension and the effect of antihypertensive treatment in Native Americans (North-American Indians).

Variability in vascular responsiveness between Mexican-Americans and White Americans.

Ethnic differences in vascular adrenergic responsiveness have been implicated to be a potentially important mechanism which may be responsible for some of the variations in haemodynamic patterns between races. These differences may account for the variability in the prevalence of hypertension in different groups. The main aim of this study was to determine whether there was a difference in venous responsiveness to the vasoactive agents, phenylephrine and isoproterenol, between Mexican-Americans and White Americans.