Glossary

Anaphylaxis: It’s an acute allergic reaction, generalized, potentially serious and occasionally mortal that happens to someone sensitive, that being previously exposed to an allergen, makes contact with it once more. Examples: medication, insect’s bites, certain foods and injections of allergic immunotherapy.

Antagonism: An opposite action between two substances that have a tendency to annul their effects mutually.

Asthenia: A decrease of strength, a state of general weakness. Weakness of an organ or weakness of a system functions.

Bile: A liquid segregated by the hepatic cells that is kept in the gallbladder and introduced in the duodenum through the bile duct. It has an important role on the emulsion, digestion and absorption of lipids, between other functions.

Bile pigment: Any pigment that is part of bile, being bilirubin the major component. The bile pigments are also normally present in plasma, urine and feces.

Bilirubin: A yellow reddish pigment, present in the bile, blood serum and feces. It gives the hepatic bile its yellow brownish color. In jaundice, bilirrubin´s blood rate raises substantially, so it may also be encountered in urine.

Biopsy: The collection of a tissue’s fragment or an organ’s fragment, on a living being, destined to microscopic exam and biochemical analysis.

CNS: Central Nervous System

CYP: see the definition of Cytochrome P450.

CYP450: see the definition of Cytochrome P450.

Cytochrome P450: (also goes by the abbreviations CYP450 or CYP) it is a superfamily – extended and diverse – of enzymes present in our organism (intestine and liver). They are responsible for most of the biotransformation reactions on phase 1.

Cytostatic: A substance that can block cellular division, through a variable mechanism, and subsequently lead to cell death. They are used to treat cancer.

Enzymes: Proteic substances that activate an organic chemical reaction.

Hemangioma: A benign tumor constituted by neoformed vessels, which dilate.

Hepatitis: Any liver’s inflammation.

Hepatotoxic: Substance capable of inducing toxic effects on the liver.

Hepatotoxicity: damage caused by a hepatotoxic substance(s).

Idiosyncratic: Relative susceptibility, usually innate, to react to certain physical or chemical factors, and that manifests itself by an allergy or anaphylaxis reaction.

INR: (short for "International Normalized Ratio") Compared quantification of an individual prothrombin time (PT) relation. The INR indicates what would have been the patient TP relation if the TP was measured using the primary reagent with WHO international reference. Used, as a standard, for monitoring anticoagulants’ effects.

Intoxication: Action exercised by a toxic substance (poison) in the organism and all the resulting disturbances. The popular synonym is poisoning.

Isoenzyme: Each of the different forms, separable by electrophoresis, under which is an enzyme in the same organism.

Jaundice: Yellowing of teguments and mucous membranes, due to impregnation of tissues by bile pigments.

Pharmacodynamic interactions: Are due to a modified response of the effector organ, giving rise to synergy, antagonism or potentiation phenomena. These interactions can be observed at the pharmacological receptors or molecular processes subsequent to the receptors activation.

Pharmacodynamics: It studies the pharmacological actions and the mechanisms used by medicines that lead to their therapeutic effect.

Pharmacokinetic interactions: Are due to modifications produced by a triggering drug over the processes of absorption, distribution, biotransformation and excretion of another drug, whose effect is modified.

Pharmacokinetics: It studies the processes of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion.

Polypharmacy: Administration of several drugs at the same time in the same patient; it is more common in elderly.

Pruritus: Severe itching of the skin, which may be due to skin disease, or haven’t any apparent cause.

Synergy (pharmacological): Association of one or more drugs to enhance one action.

Toxic: That causes organism toxicity. That contains poison.

Toxic hepatitis: Liver injury caused by inhalation, ingestion or parenteral administration of pharmacological agents, chemicals (xenobiotics).

Xenobiotic: A strange substance to a living organism that may, or may not, be toxic (depending on the xenobiotic nature, respective dose, and individual factors).