Question

The patient is admitted to the hospital for chest pain.

The order is IV nitroglycerin (NTG) 10 mcg/min and increase rate by 10 mcg/min every 10 minutes until relief of pain.

NTG 50 mg/250 mL D5W

The patient is now receiving 15 mL/hr of NTG.

How many mcg/min is the patient receiving?

Answer 1

NTG 50 mg/250 mL D5W

The patient is now receiving 15 mL/hr of NTG.

How many mcg/min is the patient receiving?

answer is 50 mcg/min

EXPLANATION -

So here patient is receiving. 15ml per hour of drug(NTG)

Firstly converting per hour into per minute, as 1 hour = 60min so it becomes 15ml per 60 min

so if 15ml per 60 min

how much in 1 min to calculate per minute

doing cross multiplication as shown below

15ml for 60min

?ml for 1 min

= 15 x 1 / 60

= 0.25 ml / min

NOW CALCULATING DRUG CONCENTRATION as shown below

it is 50 mg/250 mL D5W

so agin calculating for 1 ml by using cross multiplication method

50 mg in 250 ml

? mg in 1 ml

= 50 x 1 / 250

= 0.2 mg per 1ml

so now we know 1ml has 0.2 mg

NOW CONVERTING Mg in mcg (microgram) as we want answer in mcg/min

1mg = 1000mcg

again using cross multiplication method

1mg = 1000mcg

0.2mg = ?

= 0.2 x 1000 / 1

= 200 mcg

so now we now 1ml has 200mcg (0.2mg)

now as we have calculated earlier patient is receiving 0.25 ml / min and as we know 1ml is 200 mcg, so again using cross multiplication method

1ml = 200 mcg

0.25 ml = ?

= 0.25 x 200 / 1

= 50mcg

so answer is 50 mcg/min