Physical diagnosis training for pharmacists.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G E Pakes.
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The Patient Medication Adherence Questionnaire Version 1.0 (PMAQ-V1.0) is a patient-reported adherence instrument to assess medication-taking behaviors and identify barriers to adherence with antiretroviral therapy. To assess the correlation between adherence and virologic outcome, the PMAQ-V1.0 was administered to 194 antiretroviral-experienced adults with HIV infection enrolled in a 16-week evaluation of protease inhibitor-containing regimens featuring a lamivudine/zidovudine combination tablet. At baseline, plasma HIV-1 RNA levels were less than 10,000 copies/mL and CD4(+)-cell counts were equal to or greater than 300 x 10(6)/L; patients had been receiving a conventional regimen of lamivudine + zidovudine (separately) plus a protease inhibitor for at least 10 weeks immediately prior to the study. Forty-eight percent of patients who reported missing at least one dose of a nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitor (NRTI) during the study had detectable plasma HIV-1 RNA, compared with 26% of patients who reported no missed doses (P = .002). Patients who missed at least one dose of an NRTI or protease inhibitor were 2.5 times more likely to have quantifiable HIV-1 RNA than those who reported no missed doses. Patients who reported fewer barriers and more motivators to adherence had better virologic outcomes (P = .001). Several dimensions of the PMAQ-V1.0 did not function as well as hypothesized. In this study, self-reported adherence derived from the PMAQ-V1.0 predicted virologic outcomes, but further refinement of the dimensions appears warranted.
Oxiconazole nitrate (1%) cream became available in the United States in 1989 for the once-daily treatment of tinea pedis, tinea cruris, and tinea corporis. It has also proved valuable in the once-daily treatment of tinea (pityriasis) versicolor. In vitro oxiconazole is highly effective against many dermatophytes, including Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Trichophyton tonsurans, and Epidermophyton floccosum. After application to the skin, oxiconazole is rapidly absorbed into the stratum corneum, maximum concentrations often being attained within 100 minutes. Fungicidal concentrations are maintained in the epidermis, upper corium, and deeper corium for at least five hours, and levels exceeding the minimum inhibitory concentrations of susceptible fungi are present in the corneum, epidermis, upper corium, and the hair follicle for over 16 hours. Applied once daily for four weeks in the treatment of tinea pedis or for two weeks in the treatment of tinea corporis, tinea cruris, and tinea versicolor, 1% oxiconazole cream has produced mycologic and clinical cures in at least 80% of patients. In plantar-type tinea pedis caused primarily by T rubrum, once-daily oxiconazole cream resulted in a mycologic cure in 76% of patients. The efficacy of once-daily and twice-daily regimens is similar. In comparative clinical trials of various types of dermatophytoses, oxiconazole was shown to be as effective as or more effective than miconazole, clotrimazole, and tolnaftate creams, and as effective as econazole and bifonazole creams. Tolerability of oxiconazole and the other antifungal creams was similar; in irritation studies oxiconazole was better tolerated than econazole. Oxiconazole cream exerts no detectable systemic effect since only a negligible amount is absorbed from the skin. Once-daily use of oxiconazole cream could be valuable in patients with a history of noncompliance with multiple-daily regimens of other topical antifungal agents.