Objective: The dispensing fee revision of April in 2016 made a review of the assessment of inquiries about prescriptions.  The requirement was added by articles that seemed to be pharmaceutically necessary, showing an increase of responsibility for pharmacists.  Based on this, we performed a discussion while collecting the cases of inquiries about prescriptions.
Method: Among the inquiries about prescriptions performed at Jinjo Pharmacy for 4 months starting from April in 2016, we selected 83 cases where a prescription was changed by the pharmacist’s recommendation, based on pharmaceutical information such as drug duplication or drug interaction and confirmation of leftover medicine.  Then, we compared them with the study of inquiries about prescriptions performed by the Japan Pharmaceutical Association in 2015.
Result/Consideration: Inquiries about dose were the leading content, followed by those about duplication with other drugs of same indications and appropriateness of dose considering the adjustment of number of days due to residual drug, which showed the importance of medicinal history and prescription records.  It is considered necessary to renew the contents of the prescription record properly, based on the information acquired, while at the same time changing the pharmaceutical history based on those records.  It is thought that an inquiry about prescriptions will be performed appropriately by making a judgment based on such information. In order to do that, updated knowledge about medicine and updated information about drugs is necessary.  In comparison of the two studies, both showed that the drug information on “safety” and “dose and dose regimen” accounted for a large part of inquiries.  Further consideration on them will be necessary.

Objectives: Deep seawater (DSW) utilization technology has been developed for the fields of medicine and health, among others. To clarify the health effects of DSW as compared with surface seawater (SSW) or tap water (TW), we investigated the changes of immune cell distribution of the peripheral blood, or subjective judgment scores, after hot water bathing. Methods: Ten healthy young men were immersed for 10 min in DSW, SSW and TW heated to 42°C. Blood samples were collected before bathing, immediately after bathing and 60 min after bathing. Total and differential numbers of leucocytes and lymphocyte subsets (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19, CD16, and CD56) were examined using an automated hematology analyzer and a flow cytometer, respectively. The subjective judgment scores were obtained by an oral comprehension test. Results: Since the pre-bathing leukocyte count in the TW group was significantly different from those in the DSW and SSW groups, we excluded the findings of TW bathing from consideration. In hot DSW bathing, CD8-lymphocytes increased significantly immediately after bathing (p<0.05), in contrast to hot SSW bathing, in which no significant changes were detected in the lymphocyte subsets. Additionally, there were no significant changes between repeated measurements in the subjective judgment scores, though the score of thermal sensation in SSW bathing showed a significantly higher value immediately after bathing than before bathing (p<0.01). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that increased CD8-lymphocytes in hot DSW bathing may improve human immune function as well as hot springs do, as compared with SSW bathing. Although hot DSW bathing may have the ability to change human immune cell distribution, well-designed studies are needed to clarify the health effects including not only DSW and SSW but also TW.
Bathing self care ; Treated with ; Cells ; Deep ; Antigens, CD8

OBJECTIVESDeep seawater (DSW) utilization technology has been developed for the fields of medicine and health, among others. To clarify the health effects of DSW as compared with surface seawater (SSW) or tap water (TW), we investigated the changes of immune cell distribution of the peripheral blood, or subjective judgment scores, after hot water bathing.

METHODSTen healthy young men were immersed for 10 min in DSW, SSW and TW heated to 42°C. Blood samples were collected before bathing, immediately after bathing and 60 min after bathing. Total and differential numbers of leucocytes and lymphocyte subsets (CD3, CD4, CD8, CD19, CD16, and CD56) were examined using an automated hematology analyzer and a flow cytometer, respectively. The subjective judgment scores were obtained by an oral comprehension test.

RESULTSSince the pre-bathing leukocyte count in the TW group was significantly different from those in the DSW and SSW groups, we excluded the findings of TW bathing from consideration. In hot DSW bathing, CD8-lymphocytes increased significantly immediately after bathing (p<0.05), in contrast to hot SSW bathing, in which no significant changes were detected in the lymphocyte subsets. Additionally, there were no significant changes between repeated measurements in the subjective judgment scores, though the score of thermal sensation in SSW bathing showed a significantly higher value immediately after bathing than before bathing (p<0.01).

CONCLUSIONSOur findings suggest that increased CD8-lymphocytes in hot DSW bathing may improve human immune function as well as hot springs do, as compared with SSW bathing. Although hot DSW bathing may have the ability to change human immune cell distribution, well-designed studies are needed to clarify the health effects including not only DSW and SSW but also TW.

Objective: It has been recognized that most medical institutions preferred the printed medium for their information sheets for patient education of inhaler usage. However, some questions have arisen. In a case where patients are not sufficiently informed of drug administration guidance due to limited information with only pictures and text, they might not be able to obtain a proper understanding. Contrarily, it is assumed that video medium, with audio and visual elements, is a format for education conveying a larger amount of information. We conducted comparative research regarding patient’s degree of understanding of inhalation guidance, comparing two groups of print- and video-medium-based instructions for inhaler usage and examined how effective two types of media explanations were on patients.Methods: Research participants were thirty persons visiting Jinjo Pharmacy, who were randomly assigned to the print medium group and the video medium group. After one group read and saw an explanation sheet of an inhaler where the maker wrote inhalation instructions and the other group watched an instruction video, the two groups practiced inhaler usage. Evaluation was performed with specified items and comprehensive assessment, and in addition, the time required for inhalation was measured.Results: Score of the evaluation score was statistically significantly higher in the video medium group than in the print medium group in score of specified items and score of comprehensive assessment, and was also significantly shorter in the operation time of the inhaler.Conclusion: This study clarified that the video medium group had fewer improper inhalation occurrences and shorter operation time and, therefore, showed the effectiveness of the video medium. It is recommended that the video medium should be actively utilized,which could improve patient medication adherence. Accessibility is required for patient education to achieve inhaler techniques by watching video-based instruction.