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Glossary

Selected words and phrases

side effect – an unwanted effect from taking a medicine. Sometimes called an adverse event or drug toxicity.

specificity – when referring to the accuracy of a test result, specificity refers to the proportion of people who do not have an illness or disease who have a negative test result.

If a test has low specificity, the concern is over false-positive results – where people who to not have a condition are wrongly diagnosed as having it.

If a test has high specificity, then people who to not have a condition are correctly ruled out from the condition.

For a serious condition, high specificity is essential to prevent people being unnecessarily treated.

Online calculator.

See sensitivity.

TD (or tid) – a short hand term for medication dosing that means ‘take three times a day’.

See also q8H.

SC (sub-cutaneous) – under the skin. See IV (intravenous) and IM (intra-muscular).

interferon – see pegylated interferon.