load

1. A departure from normal body content, as of water, salt, or heat; positive loads are quantities in excess of the normal; negative loads are quantities in deficit. 2. The quantity of a measurable entity borne by an object or organism. [M.E. lode, fr. A.S. lad,]

- electronic pacemaker l. the impedance to the output, the standard l. being 500 ohms resistance ± 1%.

- genetic l. the aggregate of more or less harmful genes that are carried, mostly hidden, in the genome that may be transmitted to descendants and cause morbidity and disease; in classical genetic dynamics, genetic l. may be seen as undischarged genetic debts that result from previous mutations, each of which is supposed to exact an average number of lethal equivalents dependent only on the pattern of inheritance, regardless of how mild or severe the phenotype may be.

- viral l. the plasma level of viral RNA, as determined by various techniques including target amplification assay by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction and branched DNA technology with signal amplification. Because levels of detection vary with method, results of testing by different methods are not comparable.Serial measurement of HIV viral l. has become a standard procedure in monitoring the course of AIDS. Reported as the number of copies of viral RNA per mL of plasma, assessment of viral l. provides important information about the number of lymphoid cells actively infected with HIV. This laboratory procedure has supplanted the CD4 count as an indicator of prognosis of persons infected with HIV, in determining when to start antiretroviral therapy, and in measuring the response to therapy. Because the CD4 count is regarded as superior in determining the level of immune compromise and the risk of opportunistic infection, both tests are currently used. Antiretroviral therapy is started when plasma HIV RNA concentration exceeds 5000 copies/mL. When, as a result of treatment, the number of copies of viral RNA falls below the level that can be detected by standard methods, replication of HIV is considered to have been suppressed. In no case, however, has AIDS been cured, nor has viral proliferation remained arrested after cessation of antiretroviral therapy.

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load 'lōd n

1 a) a mass or weight put on something

b) the amount of stress put on something <this normal instinctive fear which adds its \load to the nervous system (H. G. Armstrong)>

c) an amount of something (as food or water) added to the body or available for use in some physiological process <the cell's response to an increased metabolic \load (Emergency Medicine)>

2) the number or quantity (as of patients) to be accommodated or treated <the patient \load of physicians in private practice (Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc.)>

3) the amount of a deleterious microorganism, parasite, growth, or substance present in a human or animal body <measure viral \load in the blood> <the worm \load in rats> called also burden

4) GENETIC LOAD

load vt

1) to put a load in or on <rabbits were \loaded with...pyruvate by intravenous injections (Experiment Station Record)>

2) to weight (as a test or experimental situation) with factors influencing validity or outcome

3) to change by adding an adulterant or drug <patent medicines were \loaded with narcotics (D. W. Maurer & V. H. Vogel)>

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(lōd) 1. the quantity of a measurable entity borne by an object or organism. 2. the body content, as of water, salt, or heat, especially as it varies from normal.