Glossary
Terms
H
- Half-life
- The period of time in takes for half of any medication to be metabolized by the body; used to measure how long a medication's effects will last and thus how frequently it must be dosed
- Heart
- The main organ of the circulatory system that has the function of receiving blood from and pumping blood to the rest of the body
- Heart attack
- Also known as a myocardial infarction (MI); a sudden event when part of the heart is deprived of blood, usually due to a blockage in one of the coronary arteries, resulting in damage to that part of the heart.
- Hepatitis
- Inflammation of the liver, most often caused by infection from a hepatitis virus (e.g. hepatitis A,B,C)
- Hypertension
- High blood pressure
- Hypoxic vasoconstriction
- A characteristic of the pulmonary arteries by which they constrict during periods of low oxygen concentration