Question

Patient weight: 50 kg
Medication order: Nitroprusside 2 mcg/kg/min
Pediatric dose: 200-500 mcg/kg/hr
Drug available: Nitroprusside 50 mg/5 mL
Dilution: 50.5 mg in 250 mL of NS at 19 mL/hr

Will this dilution deliver 1.27 mcg/kg/min?

	A.	True
	B.	False
	C.	True and False
	D.	Neither

Answer 1

A. True

There's a lot of extra info in the question that you don't need. Start by picking out what's relevant to the calculation.

Patient weight: 50kg, and

Dilution: 50.5mg in 250ml of NS at 19ml/hr.

And your goal Answer, which is:

1.27mcg/kg/min.

Since the goal is in mcg/min, convert everything to those units and reduce:

50.5mg/250ml = 50 500mcg/250ml = 202mcg/min

19ml/hr = 19ml/60min = 0.316ml/min

Thus:

202mcg/ml * 0.316ml/min = 63.832mcg/min(the mLs cancel each other out)

63.832mcg/50kg/min = 1.276mcg/kg/min

The result is 1.27mcg/kg/min.