Category: D

  • Ductus venosus

    In a fetus, the blood vessel connecting the portal sinus to the inferior vena cava. The smaller, shorter, and posterior of two branches into which the umbilical vein divides after entering the abdomen of the fetus. It empties into the inferior vena cava.  

  • Ductus deferens

    One of two tubes along which sperm pass from the epididymus to the seminal vesicles near the prostate gland. Duct about 45 centimeters (18 inches) long, leading from testis looping around the bladder, and ending in the ejaculatory duct. A long, narrow tube that receives spermatozoa from the epididymis; also known as the vas deferens.…

  • Ductule

    A very small duct, e.g., one of the small tubes found in the tear glands.  

  • Ductless

    Without a duct.  

  • Ducrey’s bacillus

    A type of bacterium found in the lungs, causing chancroid [Described 1889. After Augusto Ducrey (1860-1940), Professor of Dermatology in Pisa, then Rome, Italy.]  

  • Dry out

    Same as dry. To treat someone for alcoholism, or undergo treatment for alcoholism (informal).  

  • Dry gangrene

    A condition in which the blood supply to a limb has been cut off and the tissue becomes black. Gangrene that results when the necrotic part has a progressive reduction in its blood supply but does not typically become infected. This occurs when arterial blood flow to a tissue is obstructed. The tissue gradually dries,…

  • Dry drowning

    Death in which someone’s air passage has been constricted by being under water, though he or she does not inhale any water. A form of drowning in which no fluid enters the lungs. In dry drowning, even though water does not enter the lungs, there is a fatal lack of oxygen. This may be due…

  • Dry burn

    An injury to the skin caused by touching a very hot dry surface.  

  • Dry beriberi

    Beriberi associated with loss of feeling and paralysis.