Category: E

A narrow canal connecting the middle ear with the throat, helping to protect the delicate eardrum and ossicles (tiny middle-ear bones) from potentially dangerous changes in pressure or explosive noises; if the tube is blocked, significant ear and hearing problems can result.  

An infectious viral disease that causes a striking red rash on the cheeks, giving it an alternate name, slapped cheeks disease. It is also called the fifth disease, because it is the least well known of the common childhood diseases, the other main ones being measles, mumps, chicken pox, and rubella (German measles). Erythema infectiosum…

The ends of the long bones in the limbs, where growth takes place in children.  

Substances in home, work, or community that can have adverse effects on health; when they affect the health of a fetus during pregnancy, they are often called reproductive hazards. Some of these occur naturally, such as radiation from the sun; many others result from human activities, often involving chemicals and human-induced radiation. The catalog of…

A common type of biopsy performed in evaluating infertility problems. A procedure in which a tissue sample is taken from the lining (endometrium) of a woman’s uterus to examine it under a microscope for conditions such as hyperplasia (tissue growth) or cancer. An endometrial biopsy may be recommended to evaluate abnormal vaginal bleeding, to screen…

Treatment for infertility that involves a female egg (ovum) donor, who volunteers to be inseminated with a man’s sperm; after the fertilized egg has been implanted in her uterus for a few days, the developing embryo is flushed out and implanted into the uterus of the man’s wife or female sex partner. For the procedure…

A child of an age to be classed as a minor (generally under 18) but who has become free of parental control and custody. Minors who leave home, join the military, or otherwise assume legal responsibility for themselves and show their full independence from parental support may legally be declared emancipated by a court; those…

A medical test that records the electrical activity of the heart, used in seeking to diagnose heart disorders. Electrodes are attached painlessly to the chest, wrists, and ankles; these transmit information about the electrical changes in the heart as it undergoes each rest-contraction cycle, generally recorded as a graph on a sheet of paper (sometimes…

A complication connected with ventricular septal defect, a type of congenital heart defect. A condition present at birth that combines pulmonary hypertension (high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs) with a heart defect that mixes oxygen-rich and oxygen-poor blood, often giving the skin a bluish tint. Although people are born with Eisenmenger complex,…

A summary reflecting how a child’s SCORE relates to a wide range of other scores on the same achievement test; also called achievement age. If an eight-year- old child’s score on an achievement test is the score normally achieved by children half a year older, that child’s educational age will be eight years, six months.…