When I use a word . . . Medical definitions: Pharmacovigilance signals

SignalsEtymologically, a signal is a mark that in some sense shows the way. By extension it demands to be followed. Indeed, unless it is followed it is of little value, and failure to follow a signal may lead to difficulty, or even disaster. One thinks, for example, of failure to follow an instruction given by a set of traffic signals. A published dosage regimen is a signal demonstrating how a drug should be used, and a pharmacovigilance signal warns about a potential adverse drug effect or reaction, of which one should take notice and follow up with more detailed studies.The word signal may have derived from one of two similar IndoEuropean roots, SEK, to cut or SEKW, to follow. Both give us many English derivatives.SEK, via the Latin verb secare, to cut, gives us secant, section and venesection, sector, and segment; adding prefixes we get dissect, insect, intersect, resect, and…
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