Glossary

steatosis – fatty liver. Build up of fat in the liver. Steatosis worsens liver damage and makes hepatitis C harder to treat.

arrhythmia is the medical terms for a disturbance of the heart’s natural rhythm.

• tachycardia refers to when the heart beats too fast.
• bradycardia is when the heart beats too slowly.

study population – the group of people in a study.

intent-to-treat analysis (ITT) and on-treatment analysis (OT) – two important ways that trial results are analysed. ITT includes all patients who entered the study and is more rigorous. OT only calculates the response rates for people still on the randomised treatment.

STARHS – this is a type of HIV test that can indicate whether you are likely to have been infected within the last six months. STARHS stands for Serological Testing Algorithm for Recent HIV Seroconversion. In the UK this test is now called RITA (Recent Infection Treatment Algorithm).