First, my medical question: How are tuberuclosis tests administrered? Is it subcutaneous?
Next:
I’m a student in a med class which involves the use of the PDR… I was hoping someone with some knowledge (and the PDR) could check this over and help me out… There are a couple sections I’m a little unsure of. The PDR I have seems not to be the official one (a friend gave it to me) but perhaps a bridged version. So the following is info that I am wondering is correct or questions that I can’t answer (and reasons why)
**Define PDR: **_Physician’s Desk Reference A thick volume that provides a guide to all prescription drugs available in the United States. Te PDR is a key reference to the American pharmacopeia. _____________________________
What are the main sections of the PDR?
Section 1 : white, manufactuer’s index
• Section 2: Pink, Product name index
• Section 3: Blue, Product category index
• Section 4: Yellow, generic and chemical name
• Section 5: product identification
• Section 6: white, product information section
Define generic drug:A drug which is exactly the same as a brand name drug and which is allowed to be produced after the brand name drug’s patent has expired. It is also called a "generic equivalent.”___________________
** Define OTC drug: **__An OTC drug is available without a medical prescription, intended for self-healing; OTC stands for “Over the Counter”. The OTC status of a drug is obtained by the producer for a certain drug form and for a certain indication, should his application for drug registration be positively assessed by the state authorities (SÚKL in the Czech Republic). _______________________________
NOW HERE IS WHERE MY TROUBLE STARTS. THE VERSION I HAVE HAS NO DRUGS LISTED UNDER “J”, THE LETTER WHICH MY FIRST NAME BEGINS WITH. ARE THERE ANY DRUGS IN THE PDR BEGINNING WITH J?
I’M NOT REALLY LOOKING FOR THE ANSWER OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS BUT WHETHER OR NOT (AND POSSIBLY ONE AS AN EXAMPLE) OR A DRUG THAT BEGINS WITH THE LETTER “J”
Look in the pink product name index section of PDR.
a. List a drug that starts with the first initial of your first name: ____________________________________________________
b. List at least 2 conditions for which this drug is prescribed: _____________________ ___________________________________
Just found out my wife doesn’t use the PDR any more, she Googles for medical terms!
Talked to her 10 min ago and mentioned the forwarded text. So sorry.
However she did confirm that the TB test is subcutaneous. Further, she told me than whe one gets a positive, it does NOT mean that one has TB, only that one has been exposed to it, and has generated the antibodies to it.
This is not a big deal except to health care workers. What she said was that once you get a positive, the skin test is no longer reliable, that is you will always test positive for some number of years. She didn’t know if this = forever. Just that other tests needed to be performed from that point on.
Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. My own subscription to the on-line PDR does not do single-letter lookups.
Dang, I really thought she had the current PDR only to find out that she hasn’t use it in a few ears.
Anyway, if she does find anything more, I’ll post it. But I think bunnymom covered the “j” drug-lookup.
I was always taught that a PPD positive (subq by the way) meant that you did indeed have TB, as in that the TB bug had infected you and you had formed a response to it. Importantly, this is not a true-antibody mediated response but rather a T-cell response. The bug often gets encapsulated and causes no further damage, remaining in a microscopic granuloma that nobody cares about. Active TB can happen at any point later, or with the initial infection (IIRC there is a 25% lifetime risk of converting to active TB). This is why you treat a PPD conversion to positive with 6 months of isoniazid. Once you form a TB response, it is with you for life, unless you later become T-cell unresponsive (which is called anergy) which can happen in numerous different situations. One is supposed to do a Candida control on the other arm to test for anergy but usually you don’t.
To the OP:
In my ePocrates, the three drugs listed under J are Jantoven (a trade name for) warfarin, Jolivette (norethindrone – a contraceptive), and several different dosing packages of Junel (21 1.5/30, 21 1/20, FE 1.5/30, FE 1/20) which is another contraceptive, enhinyl estradiol/norethindrone. These are all trade names and I don’t think would be listed as such in the PDR. I would suggest using warfarin, there’s tons of information about it, although its only indication is anticoagulation.
BTW, many physicians have stopped using the PDR so much simply cause it is heavy, it is easily outdated, and it is written by the drug companies and viewed as less-than-impartial. Most depend on auto-updating drug dictionaries for PDAs or small pocket-reference dosing dictionaries. Still a nice reference and heavy enough to kill a medium-sized housecat. Or perhaps an otter or a nutria.
The TB skin test (PPD) is not given subcutaneously. It’s administered intradermally (see 2nd paragraph of this link, one of many to confirm the intradermal mode of testing).
To make one thing perfectly clear: the entries in the PDR are the exact texts of the drug information sheets that are included in the manufacturers’ packaging. There are better standards out there:
the United States Pharmacopeia contains specifications and test instructions for the majority of drugs and drug ingredients marketed in the US. The USP Convention also publishes a dictionary of drug information.
Facts and Comparisons is a constantly expanding reference of data and observations compiled by pharmacists for pharmacists. There’s some better info online, but it’ll cost ya.
Forgive me if this is poorly worded. I’m kinda drunk.
They still print the dead-forest edition? Think the last time I had one in my hands was 1998 - since then, I’ve just used things like Google and Drugs.com or Rxlist.com.
If you’re looking for info on a brand-name med, more often than not, you can just frame it with www. and .com and find it - eg: www.aspirin.com
