Similar packaging and names of some of the opiates used for PCA have led to errors in drug selection. Prefilled syringes of meperidine and morphine have been packaged in boxes that look alike. Morphine is available in prefilled syringes in two concentrations, but the packaging might not be helpful for personnel who must quickly distinguish [...]

Patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) has considerable potential to improve pain management, allowing patients to self-administer more frequent but smaller doses of analgesia. When used as intended, PCA actually reduces the risk of oversedation, which is an unintended consequence of the more traditional method of nurse-administered analgesia in larger, less frequent doses. In fact, with PCA, patients [...]

Our study showed baseline differences among the non-hypertensive and hypertensive AAASPS enrollees. Specifically, the non-hypertensive African American enrollees were more likely to be current cigarette smokers and have higher education, and less likely to have old CT/MRI-based infarcts. On the other hand, hypertensive AAASPS enrollees, in addition to having htn, were more likely to have [...]

Demographic and Cardiovascular Factors (Table 1) The mean age of hypertensive and non-hypertensive patients was 62.3 ± 10.4 and 59.1 ± 12.5 years (p=0.064), respectively. Women comprised 54% of the hypertensive and 41% of the non-hypertensive patients (p=0.030). The mean education of hypertensives was 11.1 ±3.1 compared to 11.7 ± 2.9 of non-hypertensives (p=0.024). A [...]

MRI-based Infarcts and CT-based Infarcts MRI and CT scans were reviewed by AAASPS local principal investigators and/or local radiolo gists for evidence, location and size of recent and old cerebral infarctions. MRI and CT results were classified according to TOAST criteria.

Demographics and Cardiovascular Factors The database for this analysis was the AAASPS. AAASPS is an ongoing NIH-spon-sored, multi-center, randomized, double-blind clinical trial designed to compare the effect of ticlopidine and aspirin in the prevention of recurrent stroke, myocardial infarction, and vascular death in AAs with recent, noncardioembolic ischemic stroke. Eligibility criteria for the study have [...]

African Americans (AAs) are at high risk of stroke and dying from stroke. Explanations for excess stroke risk among AAs include higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors, greater severity of risk factors or greater sensitivity to the risk factors, and lack of access to medical care. AAs have a disproportionate burden of many of the [...]