Category: M

The process of making a fixed part movable or releasing stored substances, as in restoring motion to a joint, freeing an organ, or making available substances held in reserve in the body as glycogen or fat. A technique, used by chiropractors and other health care professionals, in which a joint is passively moved within its…

Techniques and equipment provided to persons with functional deficits to assist them in moving safely from one location to another. For people with blindness or low vision, the term orientation and mobility (OM) training is used. Orientation involves knowing where in space one is located. Mobility involves enacting a plan to get to a desired…

Any assistive technology that aids the movement of people with physical impairments. Examples include lift chairs, scooters, or wheelchairs.  

An imaging device, and its supporting software and staff, housed within a truck, camper, tractor/trailer, oceangoing craft, or airplane, used to bring imaging technology to remote places.  

A device for support of the forearm, usually mounted on a wheelchair, that assists weak shoulder and elbow muscles in positioning the hand, as in eating.  

An autosomal recessive form of muscular dystrophy in which mutations in the skeletal muscle gene that codes for dysferlin results in weakness of distal muscles, especially the muscles that control plantar flexion of the feet. The disease first becomes clinically obvious in early adulthood.  

A laboratory test in which lymphocytes from different individuals are mixed to identify the presence of particular HLA class II antigens. The T cells from the “responder” will synthesize DNA and proliferate only if they do not have the same histocompatibility antigens as the “donor cells,” homozygous cells with known HLA types. The donor cells…

Dementia in which elements of both Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia are found.  

A gray dot on the posterior lens capsule. It is the remnant of the fetal hyaloid artery of the eye.  

Straightening of the left border of the heart due to mitral valve disease, as seen in the anteroposterior projection of the heart.