Cardiovascular refers to the heart and blood vessels.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the general term for disease to the heart and related blood vessels.
Glossary
Selected words and phrases
virus – an infectious organism that can only reproduce inside the cell of another plant or animal.
cirrhosis – severe scarring of the liver (see fibrosis) that makes it difficult for the liver to carry out its functions
blip – small, occasional increase in viral load.
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.
See sensitivity.