Svein Haavik | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

[Prescription errors--dimension and measures].

BACKGROUND: A prescription should contain sufficient information to dispense the right medicine with correct instructions for use. The information given on the prescription also forms the basis for reimbursement of drug expenses. Knowledge of prescription errors may improve the procedures of the prescribing physician and the pharmacy. MATERIAL AND METHOD: Prescriptions without information on the indication of the drug therapy were registered in ten Norwegian pharmacies during two days in the autumn of 2004. Other errors and omissions on prescriptions were registered in nine of the pharmacies during a five week period. RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION: A total of 1884 (39%) of the 4667 prescriptions included in the first part of the study contained no information on the indication. A total of 1696 other errors and omissions were registered on 1359 (2%) of the 69,315 prescriptions included in the second part of the study. The most common errors and omissions were incomplete instructions for use (26%), missing information about the patient (17%), and errors and omissions related to reimbursement of drug expenses. 294 (17%) of the errors were judged to have potential clinical significance if they had not been corrected. The most common intervention was to interview the patient or to contact the prescribing physician. The most common changes were to change or clarify drug and dose.

Drug Information Services↗

PubMed2002

Immunologic quantitation of the carcinoma specific human carcinoma antigen in clinical samples.

BACKGROUND: Based on the cross-reactivity of the human carcinoma antigen, HCA, with epiglycanin, a mouse mammary carcinoma cell surface glycoprotein, HCA has been detected in the tissue and blood of patients with every type of epithelium-derived cancer tested. METHODS: Competitive binding assays utilized the following antiepiglycanin antibodies: a polyclonal rabbit antiserum (immunoglobulin [Ig] G and IgM) in a radioimmunoassay; mouse monoclonal antibodies (Ab-1, IgM) on immunoplates; anti-idiotypic (Ab-2) and anti-anti-idiotypic (Ab-3) monoclonal antibodies (both IgG) from spleen cells of C57BL mice immunized, respectively, with Ab-1 and Ab-2, and utilized on immunoplates. IgG and IgM antibodies were evaluated for their ability to detect HCA and to distinguish between the blood of patients with, or without, carcinomas. RESULTS: Assays with the rabbit antiserum distinguished plasmas of metastatic breast carcinoma patients from those of patients with benign breast disease with a sensitivity of approximately 93% (specificity 90%). Antiepiglycanin IgM monoclonal antibodies (i.e., AE3) showed high specificity and sensitivity (> 90%) with sera from advanced carcinoma patients when compared with normal sera. The IgG anti-anti-idiotypic (Ab-3) monoclonal antibodies (i.e., AF2), which bind the same epitope as Ab-1, appear to possess less nonspecific binding capacity, however, than the Ab-1 (IgM) antibodies. Anti-Ab-1 (i.e., C8F2) anti-idiotypic monoclonal antibodies, which bear an idiotope equivalent to the epitope present in epiglycanin and the HCA, demonstrated greater consistency as a standard calibrator and for coating wells than epiglycanin. CONCLUSIONS: The concentration of the HCA in the body fluids of patients with carcinomas may be accurately determined by competitive binding assays. It is suggested that the use of anti-idiotypic antibodies (IgG), rather than epiglycanin/HCA, and Ab-3 anti-anti-idiotypic antibodies (IgG), rather than Ab-1 (IgM), will improve the consistency, as well as the sensitivity and specificity, of the assay.

Adult↗