Category: A

Any disease with a sudden onset, intense symptoms and brief duration. A disease that is characterized by a single episode of a short duration from which the person returns to normal or a previous state of health. It is possible for a person to suffer an acute episode resulting from a chronic disease, acute. A…

Refers to the autonomic nervous system that has two divisions (i.e. sympathetic and parasympathetic). Self-governing. Governing itself independently. Regulated or controlled by the mechanisms within oneself, specifically referring to the autonomic nervous system, which maintains many of the body’s involuntary functions (e.g., breathing, digestion). The term pertains to the peripheral nerves responsible for transmitting signals…

Refers to spreading a microorganism by contact with a lesion on one’s own body. A secondary infection originating from an infection site already present in the body. The accidental transfer of inoculated material from one site in the body to another. Following vaccination against smallpox, for example, satellite lesions may occur around the site of…

An antibody that attacks and destroys the body’s own cells. An antibody that acts like a foreign substance and may react against normal tissues to cause disease. An antibody formed against one of the body’s own components in and autoimmune disease. An antibody, produced by B cells in response to an altered” self” antigen on…

The record of a hearing test. A graph that shows the ability of a person to hear tones of varying frequencies. A graph drawn by an audiometer. Record of an individual’s hearing sensitivity. The graphic record of a test of hearing carried out on an audiometer. A graph produced during hearing tests (with an audiometer)…

The absence of contractions of the heart; cardiac standstill. Faulty or absent contraction of ventricles, the large chambers of the heart. A state in which the heart has stopped beating. Absence of heart beat; failure of the ventricles of the heart to contract, cardiac arrest, A condition in which the heart no longer beats, accompanied…

Drawing in or out by suction. The act of removing fluid from a cavity in the body, often using a hollow needle. The process of withdrawing fluids by suction. Can also refer to the inspiration of food, food particles or fluids into the trachea. The act of withdrawing fluid through a hollow needle, as in…

The immobilization of a joint accomplished surgically. The fusing of the surfaces of a joint by surgical means. Artificial ankylosis. Fixation of a joint. A surgical operation in which a joint is fused in position, so preventing pain from movement. Aurgical procedure to fuse the bones in a degenerate or unstable joint. The surgical fusion…

A substance that inhibits trypsin, an enzyme that hastens the hydrolysis of protein.  

Any enzyme that counteracts the action of the choline esters. A substance which blocks nerve impulses by reducing the activity of the enzyme cholinesterase. Any substance that inhibits the action of ‘cholinesterase, the enzyme responsible for the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, and therefore allows acetylcholine to continue transmitting nerve impulses. Drugs with anticholinesterase activity…