ABSTRACT
The knowledge and application of pharmaceutical and clinical calculations are essential for the practice of pharmacy and related health professions. Many calculations have been simplified by the shift from apothecary to metric system of measurements. However, a significant proportion of calculation errors occur because of simple mistakes in arithmetic. Further, the dosage forms prepared by pharmaceutical companies undergo several inspections and quality control tests. Such a luxury is almost impossible to find in a pharmacy or hospital setting. Therefore it is imperative that the health care professionals be extremely careful in performing pharmaceutical and clinical calculations. In the present chapter, a brief introduction is provided for the three systems of measurement and their interconversions:
T metric system T apothecary and avoirdupois systems T household system T interconversions
The metric system, which is federally mandated and appears in the official listing of drugs in the United States Pharmacopoeia (USP), is a logically organized system of measurement. It was first developed by the French. The basic units multiplied or divided by 10 comprise the metric system. Therefore, a knowledge of decimals, reviewed in Chapter 1, is useful for this system.
