DrugXpert Blog

In this post, we shall see the list of laboratory and diagnostic test. Laboratory test and diagnostic procedures are required to ascertain the health condition of a person. There are several types with different procedures to determine the health condition of the individual. To give a precise medical diagnosis and initiate a treatment plan, prescriber request for these from the laboratory. Community pharmacy is faced with reading and interpretation of different laboratory test. There are times they request a test from their patient. It is good we all get conversant with most of the available test and diagnosis around. List Of Laboratory And Diagnostic Test This list is long but focus more on the available test in Nigeria. It is not in any order. The list will be updated as time goes on. Read Also:   laboratory test encounter by retail or community pharmacy Laboratory Clinical Chemistry 1. Liver function: this test is a blood test that is use to diagnose and monitor liver ...

Medication reminder Taking drugs according to prescription is known as medication adherence. A lot of people forget to adhere to their treatment plan. How to remember to take medication is one aspect that is very important to achieve the desired therapeutic goal of every medical intervention. There are many reasons people do not keep to their prescription. However, the most important one is forgetting to take the drugs when it is time or thinking it has been taken. Before a medical doctor prescribed medication, they put into consideration the patient lifestyle and severity of the condition being treated. Single daily dosing is prescribe for some why drowsy drugs are reserve for patients who are not active physically at their place of work. This is done to increase patient medication adherence. However, there are certain condition that cause some patient to forget to take their medication. Read Also:   How To Swallow Difficult Pill By Adults Why Some Do Not Remember To Take...

Children don't know the importance of medication. They don't like taking medication. Children that take their medication easily are doing so because they either like the taste or other attributes of the prescribed drug. Majority don't like it. To get a child to take oral medication require some skills on behalf of the person giving it. Each dosage form requires different techniques and at what age. It also depends on the means of administration. Liquid dosage form can be administered by drug spoon, syringe, drug measuring cup or dropper. The following guide should be of help. Liquid Medication Liquid medication Infants are usually prescribed liquid medication. Dispersible medication that dissolve in a solvent such as water can also be referred to as liquid medication here. There are different ways to administer it for children. The choice of the tool to use usually consider the dose and the age of the child. Droppers are the best for very young children and when th...

There are different dosage form available for adult. The most common one is drug pills. It is cheap to produce, easy to self administer, with many other benefits. This cannot be said of the other dosage forms like injection. Unfortunately, there is a small percentage of adults that find it difficult to swallow pills. According to one statistics, about 40 % of adults cannot swallow drug pills. This is pushing them to opt-in for the more painful injection. Injection is never better than drug pills. There are so many disadvantages of injection over pills. Injection is only used in unconscious patient or when swallowing pills is difficult such as during emesis. Choosing injection because one cannot swallow drug pills should not be encouraged. Read Also :  Effect Of Swallowing Drug Pills With Eba Or Fufu Why some Adults Are Scared Of Drug Pill 1. Dosage form : drug pills come in various dosage form. Some people are more comfortable with some dosage form than others. Capsule is eas...

Polypharmacy Polypharmacy are times patients are prescribe more than one drug. This can happen when a condition require multiple treatment option or when the patient is suffering from more than one disease condition. Each of the prescribed drug have a particular function in the disease condition. However, others define polypharmacy as a situation whereby a patient takes more than five different drugs at a time to treat one or more condition. Read Also:  Between Injection And Oral Dose There are advantages as well as disadvantages of polypharmacy. At old age, patient come down with many health condition that may require many drugs to treat it. Each of those drugs have different purposes. A careful selection will ensure they are all compactible with each other and suitable for their course. When a patient is prescribed more than one drug, there is a high probability the patient may not comply and adhere to the dosing. There is also the problem with drug therapy problem that i...

Caplet/capsule/tablet Most parents are scared of giving solid dosage forms to their children. These include tablet, capsule, caplets (pill). To them, these are adult dosage forms. They may be right to some extent. Newborn babies to neonates and toddlers takes only liquid food. That is because they can digest it easily without stress. As they grow older, their digestive system develop to the point of digesting semi-solid food. No longer than that, they can eat solid food. Children drugs come in different formulation to each age grade. There is oral pediatric drop, suspense, syrups and dispersible tablets. Read Also:  How To Calculate Weight Of A Child While most adults can conveniently take solid dosage forms like tablets, capsules, caplets, etc, children cannot take these drugs. But there is a question that is disturbing many parents. They don't know at what age children can be considered adults capable of taking tablets, capsules, caplets, etc. without side effects. Childr...

Parasite worm Deworming drugs are drugs that kill parasitic worms in or on the body. There is a general advice that these drugs should be given at night. Others say it should be taken with food. There is no base for that as I am yet to see a reason. Deworming Drugs There are many types of deworming drugs. Their mechanism of action vary. This is because they have different types of worms. For intestinal worms, the deworming drug needed should be the one that stay on the intestinal tract. To target intestinal parasites, deworming drugs is taken on an empty stomach to stay within the gut. Using some deworming drugs with food will increase their absorption rate. When they are absorbed, little of the drug will be available for intestinal worms. What Is A Parasitic Worm Parasite worm are simple organisms that plague another organism for survival. Economic parasite worm are those that live in or on their host. The host include humans, animals and plants. They feed on the host energy and ...

Pharmacy council of Nigeria bill There is pandemonium among pharmacist in Nigeria. They are agitating for the president to sign the pharmacy council of Nigeria bill. All hell was let loss when it was rumoured that the bill is missing. The bill was written in 2010 and took six months to draft. It took the services of some members of the pharmacist's Council of Nigeria (PCN) and former director of food and drug services of the federal ministry of health (FMH). Others involve are some members of the pharmaceutical society of Nigeria (PSN), federal ministry of justice (FMJ), director of pharmaceutical services from states and the legal department of the federal ministry of health. Read Also:   All About Pharmacists Council of Nigeria The bill was passed by the lower house after two reading in 2017. It took three reading in the upper chamber before it was passed into the bill as a single bill and not as two. The reason for the combination is that they saw that both bills address...

Potash also is known locally as nkanwu among others is a popular ingredient in many Nigerian cuisines. It is the second most popular salt in Nigeria. It serves different purposes depending on the food it is added to. In beans, it makes it tender acting as a tenderizer in a short time using minimum heat. In okro or ogbono soup, it increases the soup viscosity. In owho and even beans, it makes oily food turn emulsion. Crystals of potash (nkanwu), with a  U.S. penny for reference. (The coin is 19 mm (0.75 in) in diameter and  copper  in color.) However, potash is popular around the world for a different reason. It is an ingredient in fertilizers. It increases plant resistance to disease and heightens water retention.  Other uses are bleaching textiles, making glass, making soap, preservatives of meat and fish, etc. Source Of Potash (Nkanwu) It is gotten from within the earth crust in large deposits around the world. It is formed when rock deposits wit...

Ever since vaccines were introduced, several vaccines have been developed. Many were able to stop the spread of deadly infection. Unfortunately, one of the most deadly diseases of all time malaria is yet to get a vaccine readily available. There are several factors that are contributing to the slow success of developing a vaccine for malaria. Read Also:   First Malaria Vaccine To Reach Stage Three Clinical Trial Vaccines are either live or attenuated microorganism. Unfortunately, this does not work with the malaria parasite. This is due to the complex malaria parasite life cycle and its ability to develop resistance. To understand whats scientist are up to, and the setbacks they face, let's take a look at the life cycle of this parasite. Life Cycle Of Malaria Parasite Plasmodium life cycle There are five species of malaria parasite that cause infection. They are transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito during a blood meal. The parasite known as a sporozoite of about 5...