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A 62-year-old male had a heart attack about 9 months ago. He was stented and placed on both aspirin 81 mg daily and clopidogrel 75 mg daily. He presents today to the emergency department and is diagnosed with a STEMI. His wife is wondering why the medications used to prevent this from happening didn’t work. […]
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Glucagon can be a lifesaver, literally. Glucagon’s primary use is in the setting of severe hypoglycemia. Glucagon works by increasing cyclic AMP which causes glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis. This ultimately leads to an increase in glucose in the blood and helps manage a hypoglycemic state. Here are some clinical pearls that are important to glucagon’s use. […]
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Enzyme inducers most frequently reduce the concentrations of other drugs. This can ultimately lead to treatment failure. In rare situations (i.e. prodrugs), starting an enzyme inducer can potentially raise concentrations of the active metabolite and increase the risk for toxicity. Throughout my pharmacy career, I’ve been tested on various enzyme inducers. Here’s my top 5. […]
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In geriatrics, deprescribing has become a very popular term. Deprescribing is simply reducing a patient’s medication burden by reducing and discontinuing medications. This is often done as the potential long term benefits of medication dwindle as a patient’s life expectancy goes down. My favorite deprescribing resource is a list of algorithms that really allows you […]
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In this polypharmacy case study, I pick out some medications that we may be able to discontinue. An 88-year-old male is looking to reduce his medication burden. Current medications include: Aspirin 81 mg daily Furosemide 10 mg daily KCL 10 meq daily Omeprazole 20 mg daily Famotidine 20 mg BID Oxycodone 5 mg every four […]
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