Category: P
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Platonic
The close association between two people that does not include a sexual relationship.
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Platelet transfusion
A blood transfusion in which red blood cells are removed and the remaining blood, rich in platelets is transfused.
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Platelet adhesiveness
The tendency of platelets to clump together, thus enhancing the speed at which blood clots.
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Plateau phase
The sexual response phase of sustained arousal.
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Plateau
In education, period of no apparent improvement in learning a skill. Elevated, usually flat area especially on a graph or flow chart; also refers to a period of little or no change or progress, such as in athletic training. Sometimes, the effects of a drug reach a plateau where no further beneficial effects are noted.…
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Plastic surgery
A medical specialty concerned with corrective, restorative, or reparative surgery for restoring or improving or repairing deformed or mutilated parts of the body. Surgical operations performed to reconstruct, repair, or alter skin and associated tissue, especially when it has been damaged by injury or disease, such as burns or cancer, or is deformed because of…
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Plasticity
The capacity for being molded or shaped, as in a developmental level where there is a potential for change, human plasticity. Literally, the ability to be molded, such as in a warmed plastic compound. In neurology, refers to changes in nerve synapse function that can occur as a result of the history of discharge at…
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Plasmosome
The body within the nucleus of a cell.
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Plasmolysis
The shrinking of the protoplasm from the cell wall as a result of outward diffusion of water into a solution with a low diffusion pressure of water. The contraction of a cell protoplasm by dehydration, where the surrounding cell wall becomes smaller. Shrinking of bacterial protoplasm due to loss of water to a suspending fluid…
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Plasmodium
A protozoan, some of which cause disease in humans, e.g., malaria. A type of parasite which infests red blood cells and causes malaria. Genus of parasites that includes the malaria-causing organisms. A genus of protozoans that live as parasites within the red blood cells and liver cells of man. The parasite undergoes its asexual development…