HIV Treatment Alerts - June 2004

Adherence: how well someone takes medication as directed, with respect to number and timing of doses..

Anemia: low levels of red blood cells or hemoglobin in the blood, resulting in poor oxygen transport and usually feelings of tiredness or fatigue.

Anesthetic: a substance that dulls the senses or causes unconsciousness, usually to reduce pain during surgery or other procedures.

Antiretroviral: having effects against HIV, which is a type of "retrovirus."

Cognitive: referring to mental activities such as thinking, remembering, imagining, and learning.

Control group: a special situation in research where no drug is given or no test is done. For example, a control group that gets a sugar pill (or “placebo,” see below) might be compared to an experimental group that gets a real medication to see what the effects of the medication are.

Diabetes: a disorder involving insulin (a substance in the body that helps regulate blood sugar) that results in too much sugar in the blood and urine. Symptoms include hunger, thirst, weight loss, and frequent urination.

Drug-resistance mutation: a genetic change (mutation) that allows HIV to reproduce itself in the presence of an HIV medication.

Dyslipidemia: abnormal levels of lipid (fat) in the blood.

Enzyme: a complex protein that carries out a specific job in the body.

Fragility: a state of being easily broken.

Gastrointestinal: referring to the digestive system (stomach, intestines, gut).

Genotype: a test that measures specific genetic changes (mutations) in HIV associated with drug resistance (see above).

Hormone: a substance secreted by one part of the body that stimulates cells in another part of the body (for example, testosterone).

Insulin resistance: decreased sensitivity to insulin that is associated with diabetes (see above).

Lipoatrophy: a loss of fat, usually in the face, arms, or legs (in HIV+ people).

Lipodystrophy: changes in body fat such as loss of fat in the arms and legs and accumulation of fat in the gut or at the back of the neck.

Membrane: the outer coating or shell of a cell, like a water balloon or a soap bubble where the inside has all the main parts of the cell.

Metabolism (metabolic): chemical reactions in the body that are part of life; for example, turning food into energy or breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide.

MRI: magnetic resonance imaging, a non-invasive technique that creates a computer-generated image of the body.

Mutation: a genetic change, such as when HIV becomes resistant to a medication.

Neuropathy: damage to nerves (usually peripheral nerves, such as those in the arms and legs) resulting in muscle weakness, pain, and numbness.

Opportunistic infection: a disease or infection caused by an organism that is usually harmless, but becomes activated when a person’s immune system is impaired or damaged.

Placebo: sometimes just the act of taking a pill can make someone feel better; so, to watch for this, a placebo (a pill or substance with no effect, such as a sugar pill) is often used to compare with a real medication to see what the medication's true effects might be. This would typically be used in a control group (see above).

Phenotype: a test that measures drug resistance (see above) of HIV by seeing what medications still work against a person's virus in a test tube.

Regimen: a combination or schedule of medications.

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Copyright © 2004 - Research Initiative Treatment Action (RITA!). Reproduced with permission. RITA! is published by The Center for AIDS. Contact Thomas Gegeny, MS, ELS, Editor, RITA! for permission to reproduce RITA!. tom@centerforaids.org. http://www.centerforaids.org

AEGiS is made possible through unrestricted grants from Boehringer Ingelheim, Elton John AIDS Foundation, Bridgestone/Firestone Charitable Trust, the National Library of Medicine, and donations from users like you. Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2005. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

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