Drug usage & illness in elderly patients (Part I). Your CE topic this month (No. 9).
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Large hospitals appear to have advantages in using specialized clinical practitioners to provide prospective reviews on drug therapy. Using the PRMC pharmacy service as a model, a prospective DUE program can be duplicated in small hospitals with four or five fulltime pharmacists. The minimal requirements are a microbiology laboratory, administrative support, and a pharmacy service committed to providing prospective patient oriented care.
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The objective of this study was to assess the changes in outcome of cardiac arrest due to ventricular fibrillation, asystole and electromechanical dissociation in relation to the changing guidelines for drug therapy set by the U.K. Resuscitation Council. It was a retrospective study of 667 resuscitation records for the years 1982, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990 and 1991. It took place in a large district general hospital with a regional cardio-thoracic centre. We have audited the asystolic cardiac arrests (N = 271) which occurred outside the cardiac care unit (CCU). Adrenaline (intravenous 1 mg) is now the first line drug followed by atropine at an increased dose (2 mg intravenously); calcium is no longer recommended and sodium bicarbonate should be reserved for cases in which an acidosis has been documented. Atropine use has increased over the 9-year period. Bicarbonate use did not change from 1982 to 1986 but fell progressively to no use at all in 1991. Calcium use has declined since 1982. Adrenaline use has remained unchanged. Survival from asystolic arrests (hospital discharge) has remained unchanged at 0-5.5%. Asystole as a primary event in the CCU was uncommon (N = 17) and no patient was discharged. Over the same period, 60% of patients (N = 92) with a cardiac arrest on CCU due to ventricular fibrillation (VF) were discharged and 55% were alive after 6 months. For VF on the wards (N = 192), only 20% of patients were discharged from hospital. A similar proportion was successful for each year.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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Series of well-documented case reports strongly suggest a causal association between tiaprofenic acid and a form of aseptic cystitis, which can cause serious and long-term morbidity if the drug is not withdrawn promptly. These findings are supported in the Australian and UK spontaneous reporting data-bases. Using sales data as the denominator, a comparison of NSAIDs in the WHO drug monitoring data-base indicates that the reaction is specific to tiaprofenic acid and cannot be accounted for by changes in reporting patterns in certain countries or years. Delayed recognition is an important feature of this reaction and possible reasons for this are discussed. Comparison of the risk profiles of seven NSAIDs indicated that tiaprofenic acid had the poorest risk profile, compared with NSAIDs of similar efficacy, when cystitis reports were included. The results suggest that combining spontaneous reports, classified according to severity, with sales data may enhance the ability of drug monitoring data-bases to contribute to risk benefit appraisals.
BACKGROUND: Diabetes mellitus is a major public health problem and often coexists with hypertension and dyslipidaemia. A prescription-based survey was conducted to examine the use of antidiabetic, antihypertensive and lipid lowering drugs in a hospital diabetes clinic. The expenditure incurred was also evaluated. METHOD: Prescriptions issued from the diabetes clinic were collected for 4 consecutive weeks. Drugs were categorized into three main classes--antidiabetic, antihypertensive and lipid-lowering drugs. The unit cost of each drug and the total amount prescribed were used to estimate the total drug costs. RESULTS: During the 4-week study period, 534 prescriptions were collected, of which 520 contained antidiabetic drugs. Oral hypoglycaemic agents were prescribed in 379 patients (72.9%). Sulphonylurea was used as a single agent in 119 (22.9%) patients, in combination with metformin in 219 (42%) patients and with insulin in 17 patients (3.3%). Among patients treated with sulphonylureas (n=342), glibenclamide (47.7%) and gliclazide (30.7%) were the main drugs prescribed. Metformin monotherapy was prescribed in only 31 patients (6%). Insulin treatment was prescribed in 141 (27%) patients and in combination with oral drugs in 23 patients (4.5%). Of the 534 prescriptions, 225 (42%) contained antihypertensive drugs. Calcium channel blocking agents and angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors were the most commonly prescribed drugs in both monotherapy (n=155) and combination therapy (n=70). The antidiabetic and antihypertensive drugs accounted for 45% and 39% of the total drug expenditure, respectively. Lipid-lowering drugs were prescribed in 8% of the diabetic patients. Simvastatin and gemfibrozil were the most common drugs prescribed and accounted for 12% of the total drug expenditure. CONCLUSION: The use of antidiabetic drugs represents a major burden on the health care system. The high proportions of patients requiring antihypertensive drugs and lipid lowering drugs further increase drug expenditure. Most of these treatments have been shown to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life, if used appropriately. The impacts of these long-term medications on health care financing require careful evaluation to assess their cost-effectiveness.
The object of this study was to develop a concurrent automated screening system to identify patients with a glomerular filtration rate (GFR) less than 50 mL per minute who might need dose or interval adjustment of drugs that are excreted primarily renally. The design of this investigation was a concurrent study of all patients in a level II trauma 317-bed community health center. The data were extracted after daily monitoring of patient laboratory values, specifically, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, creatinine clearance, and chart review. It was concluded that, in 1991, a total of 70 pharmacy-initiated interventions were made on the basis that potentially harmful side effects might have occurred if drugs that primarily are excreted renally were administered to patients identified with a calculated GFR less than 50 mL per minute.
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