Characteristics of Patients with Hypertension at a Nicaraguan Clinic.

OBJECTIVE: Describe the characteristics and pharmacological management of hypertensive patients in a Nicaraguan ambulatory care clinic. METHODS: The study analyzed a random sample of 349 charts of patients aged older than 18 years from an ambulatory care clinic in Nicaragua and analyzed those who were diagnosed or had a known history of hypertension. RESULTS: Out of 349 patients, 19.77% (n=69) had a history of hypertension. Hypertensive patients were 66.2% female (n=45) with mean age of 56.1 years (SD=13.7). The most common comorbid condition was type 2 diabetes mellitus, which was present in 18.8% (n=13) of hypertensive patients. Other comorbid conditions included 10% (n=7) with chronic kidney disease and 75.8% (n=50) who were either overweight or obese. The most commonly prescribed antihypertensive medications were losartan, captopril, and enalapril. CONCLUSIONS: Hypertension is common in this clinic population and most commonly treated with angiotension-receptor blockers or angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors.

Evaluating the impact of a pediatric weight-based dosing procedure in outpatient pharmacy.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the percentage of pediatric outpatient pharmacy prescriptions with inappropriate prescribing identified by a pharmacist that resulted in a change to the prescription. Secondary objectives include describing types of inappropriate prescribing errors, prevalence of Institute of Safe Medication Practices high-alert medications, patient demographics, prescriber origin, and prescription origin. METHODS: This retrospective outpatient prescription record review was approved by an institutional review board and performed at an outpatient pharmacy located in an academic teaching hospital. The study reviewed pediatric outpatient prescriptions for a 6-month period. Prescriptions with prescribing errors were identified from pediatric prescriptions sent to the problem queue and documented with appropriate pharmacist notes. RESULTS: This study demonstrated the impact of a dose checking procedure and pharmacist interventions on pediatric prescriptions. Initial results show that 3% of all pediatric prescriptions required a pharmacist intervention. Of these prescriptions, 50% resulted in a change to the original prescription. CONCLUSION: Weight-based dose checking in a pediatric outpatient pharmacy proactively prevents potential adverse events among the pediatric population. Despite this study's limitations, we believe that a pediatric dose checking procedure in community pharmacies will reduce adverse events. Further study is warranted in this field.

A new generation of biocides for control of crustacea in fish farms.

Farming of salmon has become a significant industry in many countries over the past two decades. A major challenge facing this sector is infestation of the salmon by sea lice. The main way of treating salmon for such infestations is the use of medicines such as organophosphates, pyrethrins, hydrogen peroxide or benzoylphenyl ureas. The use of these medicines in fish farms is, however, highly regulated due to concerns about contamination of the wider marine environment. In this paper we report the use of photochemically active biocides for the treatment of a marine copepod, which is a model of parasitic sea lice. Photochemical activation and subsequent photodegradation of PDAs may represent a controllable and environmentally benign option for control of these parasites or other pest organisms in aquaculture.