Category: L

Compulsory treatment; i.e., treatment that is demanded by the courts. Usually, patients who are commanded to receive particular forms of treatment are prisoners, probationers, mentally ill individuals, people with certain communicable diseases (e.g., tuberculosis), or persons with a history of substance abuse.  

Repetitive involuntary contractions (“fluttering”) of the diaphragm and accessory muscles of respiration. The patient may experience shortness of breath and epigastric pulsations. The disease is caused by an abnormality of the respiratory control system of the brainstem.  

Confining to a bed or couch, said of certain diseases.  

A protein in which lecithin is part of the conjugate.  

One of the cells that proliferates to form the yolk sac.  

A plexus of venules in the eye between Schlemm’s canal and Fontana’s spaces.  

A technique for statistical assessment of data that minimizes the sum of the squares of the distances from each data point to a line or plane. As part of the process, the slope, intercept, and correlation coefficient are also usually calculated. Once this is done, various statistical and analytical inferences can be made, so that…

Learning that continues after formal education ends and fosters professional, intellectual,  esthetic, social, and leadership skills.  

Behavior sometimes observed in patients with hemiparesis in whom functional use of the paralyzed arm is avoided after unsuccessful attempts to use it. This phenomenon may represent a special application of learned helplessness.  

An initiative driven by Fortune 500 companies and other large private and public health care purchasers working to initiate breakthrough improvements in the safety, quality, and affordability of health care through technology.