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GPAT Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy Flashcards
50 question-and-answer cards covering Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy as it is examined in GPAT. 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
What is absolute alcohol?
Ethanol containing not less than 99.5% v/v of ethyl alcohol (essentially water-free).
What is rectified spirit?
Ethanol of about 90% v/v (roughly 95% by some specifications) obtained by rectification, i.e. fractional distillation.
Why can ordinary distillation not produce absolute alcohol?
Ethanol and water form an azeotrope at about 95.5% v/v, so distillation cannot exceed this strength; further dehydration is required for absolute alcohol.
Express the quantity of absolute alcohol for a solution of strength S and volume V.
Quantity of absolute alcohol = (S/100) x V; this value remains constant when the solution is diluted with water.
How many mL of 60% alcohol can be made from 200 mL of 90% alcohol?
V2 = (90x200)/60 = 300 mL.
How does the specific gravity of alcohol change as its strength increases?
It decreases, because ethanol is less dense than water, so higher-strength alcohol has a lower specific gravity.
Why is weighing preferred over measuring by volume for accurate alcohol dilutions?
Weighing eliminates errors caused by contraction in volume, since masses are additive while volumes are not.
Define an isotonic solution.
A solution having the same osmotic pressure (tonicity) as body fluids such as blood and tears, so cells neither swell nor shrink.
What is the isotonic concentration of sodium chloride?
0.9% w/v NaCl (normal saline).
What freezing point depression value is used as the reference for isotonicity with body fluids?
0.52 degrees C; a solution that freezes at -0.52 degrees C is isotonic with blood and tears.
Define a hypotonic solution and its effect on red blood cells.
It has lower osmotic pressure than blood; water enters the cells, causing them to swell and undergo hemolysis (bursting).
Define a hypertonic solution and its effect on red blood cells.
It has higher osmotic pressure than blood; water leaves the cells, causing them to shrink (crenation).
What is the sodium chloride equivalent (E value) of a drug?
The weight of NaCl that produces the same osmotic effect as 1 gram of the drug.
Give the formula for NaCl needed for isotonicity using sodium chloride equivalents.
NaCl required = (0.009 x volume in mL) - sum of (E value x weight of each drug); i.e. the 0.9% NaCl requirement minus the NaCl equivalent contributed by the drugs.
Name the four methods used to adjust the tonicity of solutions.
Class I: Sodium chloride (NaCl) equivalent method and Freezing point depression (cryoscopic) method. Class II: White-Vincent method and Sprowls method.
What principle does the freezing point depression (cryoscopic) method rely on?
That 0.9% NaCl and body fluids both depress the freezing point by 0.52 degrees C; the adjusting substance is added to bring the total depression to 0.52 degrees C.
State the freezing point method formula for the % of adjusting substance needed.
W = (0.52 - a)/b, where a = freezing point depression caused by the drug, b = freezing point depression of a 1% solution of the adjusting substance, and W = % w/v of adjusting substance required.
What is the White-Vincent method?
A method that finds the volume of isotonic solution obtainable from a given weight of drug using V = w x E x 111.1, after which the solution is made up to final volume with an isotonic vehicle.
In the White-Vincent method, what does the constant 111.1 represent?
The volume in mL of isotonic solution produced by 1 g of NaCl, since 0.9 g NaCl makes 100 mL isotonic, so 1 g makes 100/0.9 = 111.1 mL.
What is the Sprowls method?
A simplification of the White-Vincent method that uses precalculated tables giving the volume of isotonic solution obtainable from 0.3 g of drug (the usual weight for 30 mL).
Why is tonicity adjustment important for ophthalmic and parenteral products?
To avoid pain, tissue irritation, and cell damage (hemolysis or crenation) by matching the product's osmotic pressure to that of body fluids.
What is the Liso value, and what is its value for NaCl?
Liso is the freezing point depression of a 1 molar solution at isotonic concentration; for NaCl (a two-ion electrolyte) Liso = 3.4.
Give the formula relating a drug's E value to its molecular weight and Liso.
E = 17 x (Liso / molecular weight of the drug).
How much NaCl is needed to make 100 mL of a 1% drug solution isotonic if the drug's E value is 0.20?
Total NaCl for 100 mL = 0.9 g; drug contributes 1 g x 0.20 = 0.2 g NaCl equivalent; so add 0.9 - 0.2 = 0.7 g NaCl.
What this deck covers
The Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy deck follows the GPAT Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy syllabus — 6 chapters and 3 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 8.3 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 120 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy flashcards FAQ
How many Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy flashcards are in this GPAT deck?
50 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these GPAT flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 50-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy cards cover?
They follow the GPAT Dispensing and Hospital Pharmacy syllabus — 6 chapters and 3 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.