Math and Dosage Calculations for Health Care 3rd Edition by James Whaley, Kathryn Booth, Booth Kathryn

Exercise 39

A patient with malignant hypertension is being treated in the critical care unit. The physician writes the following order: Nipride 50 mg in 500 mL D5W to start at 1 mcg/kg/min, and titrate to maintain the systolic BP under 140. (When you measure a patient's blood pressure, the first number represents the systolic blood pressure.) The patient weighs 176 lb. According to the product insert, the maximum safe dose of Nipride is 10 mcg/kg/min.
At what rate should you initially set the infusion?