Clinical Impact of the Gene on Diazepam for the Management of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome.

Diazepam is a benzodiazepine widely prescribed for the management of patients with severe alcohol withdrawal syndrome to prevent agitation, withdrawal seizures, and delirium tremens. Despite standard dosing of diazepam, a subset of patients experience refractory withdrawal syndromes or adverse drug reactions, such as impaired motor coordination, dizziness, and slurred speech. The CYP2C19 and CYP3A4 enzymes play a key role in the biotransformation of diazepam.

An Artistic Active-Learning Approach to Teaching a Substance Use Disorder Elective Course.

To incorporate an artistic, multimedia approach to teaching within a substance use disorder (SUD) elective course to intellectually, visually, physically, and emotionally engage Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students in learning and applying clinical and legal SUD topics. Faculty members created a two credit-hour SUD elective course that required students to engage in visual, linguistic, and performing art forms, including acting, screenwriting, choreography, dancing, artwork, writing movie reviews, writing book reports, writing journal reflections, create-your-own-adventure storytelling, speech writing, examination writing, policy writing, and creative thinking in an escape room gaming environment to learn about SUD and related topics. Student learning and perception of the activities was evaluated using faculty-created analytic rubrics, pre- and post-intervention tests, student feedback, and student responses on standard course evaluations.

Incidence of Atrioventricular Block After Valve Replacement in Carcinoid Heart Disease.

Background: Carcinoid heart disease (CaHD) is a rare condition that has a high impact on the morbidity and mortality of its patients. Once heart failure symptoms develop in the patient with CaHD, cardiac valve surgery is often the only effective treatment. Although atrioventricular block (AVB) is a known postoperative complication of the valve surgery, the incidence of AVB in this population has not been well described.

Report of the 2018-2019 Student Affairs Standing Committee.

The 2018-2019 Student Affairs Standing Committee addressed charges related to examining the institutional leadership models and professional development needs of faculty and staff to optimize achievement of Strategic Priority #1 on the applicant pipeline. The report provides five recommendations to AACP and twelve suggestions for colleges and schools of pharmacy. The committee focused on the need to develop tailored leadership training and mentoring programs for admissions personnel on relevant topics, including change management, holistic thinking, leadership, problem solving, technical knowledge, professional development, paths for promotion, conflict resolution, networking, persuasive communication, and strategic planning.

Effectiveness of a pharmacy teaching certificate program offered to practicing pharmacists.

Introduction: Regardless of the practice setting, pharmacists' roles often expand beyond patient-centered services and into health-related educational roles for patients, healthcare providers, and student pharmacists. Teaching roles of a clinical pharmacist can include providing invited presentations (such as continuing education lectures), teaching colleagues about new clinical initiatives, precepting students during advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) and introductory pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs), and precepting residents on rotations. This program was designed to evaluate the effect of a university-affiliated pharmacy teaching certificate program on participant knowledge and perceived confidence in specific areas of academic pharmacy and preceptor development.

Macrolide Allergic Reactions.

Macrolides are antimicrobial agents that can be used to treat a variety of infections. Allergic reactions to macrolides occur infrequently but can include minor to severe cutaneous reactions as well as systemic life-threatening reactions such as anaphylaxis. Most reports of allergic reactions occurred in patients without prior exposure to a macrolide.

Aminoglycoside Allergic Reactions.

Aminoglycosides are antimicrobial agents that are primarily used for infections caused by Gram-negative pathogens. The purpose of this article is to review the allergic reactions reported in the published literature to aminoglycoside antibiotics. A thorough PubMed search was conducted and excluded non-allergic adverse reactions to aminoglycosides.

Evaluation of FDA Boxed Warning on Prescribing Patterns of Fluoroquinolones for Uncomplicated Urinary Tract Infections.

Little is known regarding the impact of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) boxed warning on prescribing rates of fluoroquinolone (FQ) antibiotics in the outpatient setting. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate the 2016 FDA boxed warning update on FQ prescribing rates for uncomplicated urinary tract infection (uUTI). This was a single-center retrospective cohort study conducted at 6 family medicine practices, including women aged 18 to 65 years with an outpatient visit for uUTI from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2016.

Role of CYP2B6 pharmacogenomics in bupropion-mediated smoking cessation.

What Is Known And Objective: Pharmacogenomics holds promise in smoking cessation because of its potential to shed light on the complexity of drug metabolism and improve treatments using therapeutic agents. The cytochrome P450 2B6 gene (CYP2B6) encodes CYP2B6 enzyme that has been found to mediate the hydroxylation of bupropion, a smoking cessation aid. CYP2B6 exhibits a range of polymorphic variants that alter the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of bupropion.

Prolonged clonazepam-induced withdrawal symptoms in an NAT2 ultraslow acetylator.

Clonazepam undergoes nitroreduction to 7-amino-clonazepam via CYP3A4/5, followed by acetylation to 7-acetamido-clonazepam via NAT2 enzyme. While no pharmacological activity is attributed to the metabolites of clonazepam, 7-amino-clonazepam has some affinity for the benzodiazepine receptor as a partial agonist for the gamma aminobutyric acid-A receptor and can compete with clonazepam. Interindividual variability in the incidence of adverse events in patients may, in part, be attributable to differences in clonazepam metabolism.

Plazomicin: A Next-Generation Aminoglycoside.

Plazomicin is a novel aminoglycoside antibiotic that binds to the bacterial 30S ribosomal subunit, thus inhibiting protein synthesis in a concentration-dependent manner. Plazomicin displays a broad spectrum of activity against aerobic gram-negative bacteria including extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, and organisms with aminoglycoside-modifying enzymes. In a large phase III clinical trial, plazomicin was shown to be noninferior to meropenem in the treatment of complicated urinary tract infections (cUTIs) with respect to the coprimary efficacy end points of the microbiologically modified intent-to-treat composite cure rate at day 5 (plazomicin 88% [168/191 subjects] vs meropenem 91.

Pharmaceutical strategies for smoking cessation during pregnancy.

Tobacco use is the most preventable cause of death worldwide, with over 7 million deaths per year. Smoking during pregnancy causes harm to the mother, fetus, and can result in problems for the infant from childhood into adulthood. Practitioners should ask all expectant mothers about tobacco use.

Peer-assisted Learning: Clinical Skills Training for Pharmacy Students.

To assess the impact of peer-teaching on student scores and confidence when preparing for a final objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) within a Doctor of Pharmacy program. First-year pharmacy students (n=45) attended a peer-led training session led by upperclassmen (n=17) on a variety of clinical skills to be assessed on a final course OSCE. Their scores were collected and compared to students who did not attend the training.

Impact of an interprofessional transition of care service on 30-day hospital reutilizations.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of an interprofessional Transitions of Care (TOC) service on 30-day hospital reutilization inclusive of hospital readmissions and ED visits. This was a retrospective cohort study including patients discharged from an academic medical center between September 2013 and October 2014. Patients scheduled for a hospital follow-up visit in the post-acute care clinic (PACC) were included in the intervention group and patients without a post-discharge interprofessional TOC service were included in the comparison group.

Incorporation of Professionalism Expectations and Evaluative Processes Within a College of Pharmacy.

To determine professionalism factors of interest to the University of South Florida (USF) College of Pharmacy (COP) and develop a programmatic plan to monitor the professionalization of students, faculty, preceptors and staff. In 2013, the USF COP began investigating how best to incorporate processes to capture professionalism across all aspects of the program. A Professionalism Task Force was convened to identify key professionalism factors valued by faculty and preceptors to be incorporated in pharmacy practice experiences, didactic courses, faculty, and preceptor performance evaluations.

Pharmacist Impact on Treatment Intensification and Hemoglobin A in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus at an Academic Health Center.

Background: Achievement of treatment goals for patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is suboptimal. This is in part driven by a lack of treatment intensification when warranted, termed "clinical inertia."

Objectives: To investigate time to treatment intensification and changes in A1C among pharmacist-physician managed (PPM) patients compared to usual medical care (UMC) in patients with T2DM.

A pilot IPE workshop integrating OT, pharmacy, PT, and PA programs.

Background And Purpose: This article describes the development, implementation, and evaluation of an interprofessional education (IPE) experience.

Educational Activity And Setting: The IPE experience included 53 student learners from occupational therapy, pharmacy, physical therapy, and physician assistant programs at the University of the Sciences (USciences). This experience used an icebreaker activity and a stroke case-based activity as the activities within the workshop.

Physiological role of Kvβ2 (AKR6) in murine skeletal muscle growth and regulation.

Aim: Potassium channel accessory subunits (Kvβ) play a key role in cardiac electrical activity through ion channel modulation. In this study, we hypothesize that Kvβ2 regulates skeletal muscle growth and fibre phenotype via protein-protein interactions.

Methods: Kvβ2 knockout mouse model was used for morphometric, immunohistochemical and biochemical analysis to evaluate the role of Kvβ2 in skeletal muscle physiology.

Development and In Vitro Release of Isoniazid and Rifampicin-Loaded Bovine Serum Albumin Nanoparticles.

BACKGROUND Bovine serum albumin nanoparticles loaded with isoniazid and rifampicin (INH-RFP-BSA-NPs) were prepared and their release characteristics were studied in vitro. MATERIAL AND METHODS The INH-RFP-BSA-NPs were prepared by a modified self-emulsion solvent diffusion method, with albumin and polylactic acid used as carriers and to form the nanoparticles structure. Transmission electron microscopy was used to observe the morphology of the INH-RFP-BSA-NPs.

A Case of Severe, Refractory Hypotension After Amlodipine Overdose.

Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) are responsible for a substantial portion of the mortality associated with cardiovascular medication overdose cases. Amlodipine, a dihydropyridine CCB, can cause prolonged hypotension in overdose. This report describes a severe amlodipine overdose case that was refractory to multiple therapeutic approaches.

Active-learning Strategies for Legal Topics and Substance Abuse in a Pharmacy Curriculum.

To implement active-learning strategies to engage students in learning, applying, and teaching legal and substance abuse topics. Medication Safety course student groups created films on a National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) using a movie genre and presented them in film festival format. Pharmacogenomics course student groups taught ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) topics through presentation of short stories about comic book characters with genetic mutations.

Key Lessons Learned from Moffitt's Molecular Tumor Board: The Clinical Genomics Action Committee Experience.

Background: The increasing practicality of genomic sequencing technology has led to its incorporation into routine clinical practice. Successful identification and targeting of driver genomic alterations that provide proliferative and survival advantages to tumor cells have led to approval and ongoing development of several targeted cancer therapies. Within many major cancer centers, molecular tumor boards are constituted to shepherd precision medicine into clinical practice.