hepatic encephalopathy – brain disease that occurs when serious liver damage prevents toxic substances from being flitered out of the blood, and they enter the brain. See encephalopathy.
Glossary
Selected words and phrases
T1/2 (half-life) – the time taken a drug to clear from the highest concentration to half this level. Drugs have different half-lives in different compartments (ie half-life in blood can be different from the half-life inside a cell). It take 5 x the half-live for a drug to be considered cleared.
STI (sexually transmitted infection) – other STIs include herpes, gonorrhoea and syphilis etc.
Stevens-Johnson Syndrome – a type of severe rash that is luckily rare. This rash has been reported in 0.1–0.3% of people using NNRTIs. It can also occur with other drugs including antibiotics (including cotrimoxazole/Septrin). Any rash on an NNRTI should be shown to your doctor to decide whether treatment needs to be switched or can continue.
central line – tube inserted into a deep vein to deliver medicine (Hickman line or PortaCath).