Glossary

• Saturated fat

  A type of fat that is commonly found in meat and dairy products as opposed to fats found in plants and fish, which may be unsaturated. 

• Self-efficacy

  A person’s belief in their own competency. 

• Self-management

  Actions and confidence of individuals to manage the medical and emotional aspects of their condition in order to maintain or create new life roles.  

• Sensitivity

  The ability of a test to detect a problem. 

• Service planners

  Those responsible for planning and sanctioning health services in Ireland.  

• Side effect

  An adverse event that occurs because of a therapeutic intervention. 

• SIGN

  Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, an organisation set up to develop evidence-based guidelines. It is part of Healthcare Improvement Scotland and its remit covers Scotland. 

• Spasticity

  Increased stiffness of the muscles that occurs in the paralysed limbs after stroke. 

• Specialist

  A healthcare professional with the necessary knowledge and skills in managing people with stroke and conditions that mimic stroke, usually by having a relevant further qualification and keeping up to date through continuing professional development.  This does not require the healthcare professional exclusively to manage people with stroke, but does require them to have specific knowledge and practical experience of stroke. 

• Specialist team

  A group of specialists who work together regularly managing people with stroke and conditions that mimic stroke, and who between them have the knowledge and skills to assess and resolve the majority of problems.  At a minimum, any specialist unit, team or service must be able to deliver all the relevant recommendations made in this guideline.  This does not require the team exclusively to manage people with stroke, but the team should have specific knowledge and practical experience of stroke. 

• Specificity

  The ability of a test to detect the right problem. 

• Splint

  A custom or ready-made external device to support a joint or limb in a certain position. 

• Stenosis

  Abnormal narrowing of a blood vessel. 

• Stenting

  A metal mesh tube is placed in an artery or blood vessel to increase blood flow to an area blocked by stenosis. 

• Stroke

  A clinical syndrome, of presumed vascular origin, typified by rapidly developing signs of focal or global disturbance of cerebral functions lasting more than 24 hours or leading to death. 

• Subarachnoid haemorrhage

  A haemorrhage from a cerebral blood vessel, aneurysm or vascular malformation into the subarachnoid space (the space surrounding the brain where blood vessels lie between the arachnoid and pia mater). 

• Subluxation

  An incomplete or partial dislocation of a joint. 

• Systematic review

  A way of combining the findings from a variety of different research studies to better analyse whether the studies have provided a convincing answer to a research question.