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
codon – the word for the junction on genetic material (DNA or RNA) occupied by three nucleotides (or bases) to form an amino acid. In HIV it is most used when refering to drug resistance. There is an amino acid at each codon and the codons are numbered (starting from 1) for each section of the HIV gene. For example the mutation M184V in RT refers to a mutation change at codon 184 in the reverse transcriptase gene.
EBD (event-based dosing) – a term for taking medicines only at times linked to a relevant event.
EDD is also called “on-demand dosing”.
For example, EBD for PrEP (to prevent HIV transmission) involves taking PrEP before sex and then for several days after sex. EBD for PrEP is only appropriate in some situations and for some people – otherwise daily dosing is recommended.
induction (in the liver) – refers to the body processing a drug more quickly by inducing (or increasing) more of the enzymes that clear the drug. This leads to lower drug levels.
half-life (T1/2) – 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.