Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Care and Sciences

Background: Vinorelbine is known to be effective in the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer and breast cancer. However, venous irritation is a common side effect. Although there have been some reports on risk factors for venous irritation in patients receiving vinorelbine, the factors evaluated have been limited and the results inconclusive. The aim of this study was to identify risk factors for venous irritation in patients receiving vinorelbine, and factors likely associated with venous irritation, including new factors such as hot compress with a hot towel  for prevention of venous irritation...

Background: Appropriate prophylactic rescue dosing of opioids is considered effective for cancer pain relief, but no study has reported the safety of such prophylactic rescue. We compared the safety of prophylactic rescue dosing of immediate-release oral opioids with that of regular rescue dosing. Methods: The study included 103 cancer patients who used either immediate-release morphine syrup or immediate-release oxycodone powder at Shizuoka Cancer Center between January and December 2016...

Background: The utility and effectiveness of inhalational asthma therapy in patients with a permanent tracheostomy has not been established. Previously, a few studies reported the use of nebulizer-type inhalers for treating these patients. Symbicort® Turbuhaler® (Symbicort) is an orally inhaled dry powder containing the corticosteroid budesonide and the bronchodilator formoterol. There are no reports describing the successful use of Symbicort in patients with a permanent tracheostomy...

Background: It is well known that low-dose, long-term macrolide therapy is effective against chronic inflammatory airway diseases. Oxidative stress is considered to be a key pathogenesis factor in those diseases. However, the mechanism of action of low-dose, long-term macrolide therapy remains unclear. We have reported that clarithromycin (CAM), which is a representative macrolide antibiotic, could inhibit hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 )-induced reduction of the glutathione (GSH)/glutathione disulfide (GSSG) ratio in human small airway epithelial cells (SAECs), via the maintenance of GSH levels through an effect on γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase (γ-GCS) expression...

Background: Since both the antibacterial effects and common adverse effects of colistin are concentration-dependent, determination of the most appropriate dosage regimen and administration method for colistin therapy is essential to ensure its efficacy and safety. We aimed to establish a rapid and simple high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)-based system for the clinical determination of colistin serum concentrations. Methods: Extraction using a solid-phase C18 cartridge, derivatisation with 9-fluorenylmethyl chloroformate, and elution with a short reversed-phase Cl8 column effectively separated colistin from an internal standard...

Background: The efficacy of sodium azulene sulfonate L-glutamine (GA) in treating oral mucositis caused by the administration of anticancer agents has not been previously elucidated. Therefore, this prospective comparative study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of GA in treating oral mucositis caused by chemotherapy regimens involving fluorinated pyrimidine anticancer drugs. Methods: The subjects of this study were patients with oral mucositis of grade 2 or higher while on outpatient chemotherapy regimens involving fluorinated pyrimidine anticancer drugs for colorectal or breast cancer...

Background: Vascular pain is a common adverse drug reaction in colorectal cancer patients receiving peripheral venous administration of oxaliplatin. The aim of this work was to identify risk factors for vascular pain, and to examine whether currently used treatments reduce its incidence. Methods: We conducted a multicenter retrospective study in Japanese colorectal cancer patients receiving peripheral venous administration of oxaliplatin. The effects of various treatments (administration of analgesics, addition of dexamethasone to the infusion solution for pH adjustment, dilution of the infusion solution, or use of hot gel for warming the injection site) on the incidence of vascular pain were assessed...

Background: Colloidal saccharated iron oxide injection is used for the treatment of iron deficiency anemia in patients with a poor oral intake. Because of the poor stability of the colloid particle, there have been concerns regarding its compatibility with various injections in clinical practice. To assess the stability of colloidal saccharated iron oxide in normal saline as a diluent, pharmaceutical stability analyses were conducted using various concentrations of glucose and sodium chloride (NaCl)...

Background: Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) are known to improve tolerability and have higher efficacy and shorter treatment durations compared with conventional interferon (IFN)-based treatments for hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Management of drug interactions and maintenance of patient adherence are important to achieve adequate therapeutic effects, sustained virological response (SVR). In order to maximize the benefits of oral DAA therapy, we established an ambulatory care pharmacy practice, a model of integrated collaboration between physicians and pharmacists, for patients receiving IFN-free DAA therapy...

Background: Clinical cases are often observed when patients are in need of repeated use of analgesic infusion to manage pain after colon cancer surgery. This paper investigates analgesic frequency as well as safety of postoperative intravenous (IV) acetaminophen in colon cancer surgery where epidural anesthesia is used. Methods: Among patients who received epidural anesthesia during colon cancer surgery, one group of twenty eight (28) patients received acetaminophen while another group of patients (30) did not receive it...

Background: Insufficient medication adherence in diabetes patients, of which numbers continue to increase globally, remains a critical issue. Medication adherence is multifactorial and determined by interactions among factors including socioeconomic status, health care team and system, condition, therapy, and patient-specific factors. On the other hand, personality traits have been studied in adherence other than to medication. Using the instruments of Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), Harm Avoidance (TCI-HA) and Self-directedness (TCI-SD) showed distinguishing associations with adherence of health-related programs...

Background: Incretin-based drugs are important in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, among the incretin-based drugs, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1-RAs) have been reported to cause gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)-like symptoms making it difficult to continue treatment. Therefore, with the aim of clarifying the relationship between incretin-based drugs and GERD-like symptoms, we conducted a pharmacoepidemiological study using the Japanese adverse drug event report database (JADER)...

Background: A causal relationship between acute pancreatitis and administration of glucocorticoids remains a matter of debate, since most of the reported cases were diagnosed with systemic vascular diseases (including systemic lupus erythematosus and polyarteritis nodosa) that may be responsible for the pancreatitis. Case presentation: We report a case of a 51-year-old woman who developed acute pancreatitis after receiving methylprednisolone pulse therapy for the treatment of fulminant autoimmune hepatitis (AIH)...

Background: In recent years, the popularity of LED lighting has rapidly increased, owing to its many advantages, including economic benefits. We examined the change in the quality of drugs during storage under LED and fluorescent lighting and found that some medicines exhibited a different degree of color change depending on the light source. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of different plastic storage bags on the color change over time when various medicines were stored under LED and fluorescent lighting conditions...

Background: Amiodarone and warfarin are sometimes administered immediately after cardiac surgery. Although the interaction between long-term oral amiodarone and warfarin has been reported, the interaction between warfarin and short-term intravenous amiodarone has not been reported. In this study, we investigated the effect of short-term intravenous amiodarone on the anticoagulant effect of warfarin in patients who underwent cardiac surgery. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 11 patients who received oral warfarin before and after cardiac surgery, and loading doses of 125-150 mg or a 750 mg continuous infusion of amiodarone, or both in the intensive care unit (ICU) within 5 days after the surgery between July 2011 and January 2017...

Background: Intestinal absorption of new quinolones is decreased by oral administration of polyvalent metal cations. Some clinical studies have demonstrated this drug - drug interaction is more prominent under fasted condition. However, the effect of food intake on the extent of drug - drug interaction between new quinolones and metal cations remains to be investigated quantitatively and systematically. The aim of this study was to develop an animal model that enables to evaluate the effect of food intake on the extent of drug - drug interaction in the gastrointestinal tract by chelation and to apply the model to evaluate quantitatively the effect of food intake on the drug - drug interaction between two new quinolones, ofloxacin or ciprofloxacin and sucralfate...

Background: The contents of the guidelines for the use of non-benzodiazepines (Z-drugs) differ slightly between THE JAPANESE SOCIETY OF SLEEP RESEARCH and THE JAPAN GERIATRIC SOCIETY, and the recommended directions are conflicting. Therefore, we analyzed the use of the Japanese Adverse Drug Event Report database (JADER) for identifying adverse events (AEs) caused by Z-drugs and clarifying their occurrence trend and prognosis. Methods: The signal value for comparison was calculated by using the proportional reporting ratio (PRR) and chi-squared test (χ2 ) results of data of elderly and non-elderly patients...

Background: In recent years, cancer chemotherapy is being conducted at outpatient clinics, wherein pharmacists are involved with patient guidance and management of adverse events as experts in medication therapy. Therefore, we clarified the influence of interventions by pharmacists during counseling of patients with cancer on patients' quality of life. Methods: To determine this influence, we conducted a survey to assess the quality of life of 39 patients with breast cancer who underwent their initial course of outpatient cancer chemotherapy at Gifu Municipal Hospital...

Background: Infusion sets designed for peristaltic finger smart pumps (PFSPs) are necessary for the pumps' accurate handling. We previously found that medication dispensing is occasionally incomplete following the calculated infusion time when using certain combinations of PFSPs and infusion sets at a Japanese hospital. Thus, in this study, we investigated the cause of this observed delay by determining the effect of infusion set attachment technique on dispensing time using a combination of three kinds of PFSPs and five kinds of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polybutadiene (PB) infusion sets...

Background: Mycophenolic acid (MPA) treatment requires therapeutic drug monitoring to improve the outcome after organ transplantation. The aim of this study was to compare two methods, a particle enhanced turbidimetric inhibition immunoassay (PETINIA) and a reference liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for determining plasma MPA concentrations from Japanese lung transplant recipients. Methods: Plasma MPA concentrations were determined from 20 Japanese lung transplant recipients using LC-MS/MS and the PETINIA on the Dimension Xpand Plus-HM analyzer...