Category: T

Located in or coming from areas around the equator where the climate is generally very hot and humid. Lying anywhere between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer, in what was once known as the ‘torrid zone’—defined as the part of the globe in which the sun is directly overhead at least once…

An ulcer caused by lack of blood, e.g. a bedsore. A trophic ulcer is a type of sore that forms when skin nerves are damaged or destroyed due to illness or injury. These ulcers most frequently occur on the feet and can be a secondary issue in conditions like diabetes mellitus and Hansen’s disease. An…

A wheeled table for transporting patients.  

A joint where a bone can rotate freely about a central axis as in the neck, where the atlas articulates with the axis. A form of diarthrosis (freely movable joint) in which a bone moves around a central axis, allowing rotational movement. An example is the joint between the atlas and axis vertebrae.  

A surgical instrument or pointed rod which slides inside a cannula to make a hole in tissue to drain off fluid. An instrument used to draw off fluids from a body cavity (such as the peritoneal cavity). It comprises a metal tube containing a removable shaft with a sharp three-cornered point; the shaft is withdrawn…

A rare form of colour blindness, in which someone cannot see blue. A rare defect of color vision in which affected persons are insensitive to blue light and confuse blues and greens. Blue blindness; color blindness in which there is a defect in the perception of blue. A deficiency in one of the three components…

Referring to Down’s syndrome. In genetics, an individual possessing 2n+l chromosomes, that is, one set of chromosomes contains an extra (third) chromosome.  

One of the eight small carpal bones in the wrist. A bone of the wrist. It articulates with the ulna behind and with the pisiform, hamate, and lunate bones in the carpus.  

A vaccine which induces protection against three diseases e.g. diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.  

A blood test performed on pregnant women which can detect Down’s syndrome in a fetus by analysing the relative levels of substances produced by the mother’s placenta and the fetus itself.