Massachusetts Pharmacy Technician License Practice Test

If an IV has been ordered to run at 10 drops per minute and contains 450 mg of a drug in 1000 ml, how many mg of the drug will the patient receive per hour if the set delivers 60 drops/ml?

1. 4.5 mg/hr

2. 9.0 mg/hr

3. 5.0 mg/hr

4. 6.0 mg/hr

The correct answer is: 4.5 mg/hr

To determine how many milligrams of the drug the patient will receive per hour, we first need to convert the rate of drops per minute into a volume in milliliters and then use that to find the corresponding dosage of the drug. Given that the IV is running at 10 drops per minute and the set delivers 60 drops per milliliter, we can find out how many milliliters per minute this rate translates to by using the conversion factor: 1. Calculate the volume in milliliters per minute: \[ \text{Volume (mL/min)} = \frac{10 \text{ drops}}{60 \text{ drops/mL}} = \frac{10}{60} = \frac{1}{6} \text{ mL/min} \] 2. Then, convert this volume into a total volume per hour: \[ \text{Volume (mL/hr)} = \left(\frac{1}{6} \text{ mL/min}\right) \times 60 \text{ min/hr} = 10 \text{ mL/hr} \] Now, we know that there are 450 mg of the drug in 1000 mL