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In medicine, ablation is the removal of a part of biological tissue, usually by surgery. Surface ablation of the skin (dermabrasion, also called resurfacing because it induces regeneration) can be carried out by chemicals (chemoablation), by lasers (laser ablation), by freezing (cryoablation), or by electricity (fulguration). Its purpose is to remove skin spots, aged skin, wrinkles, thus rejuvenating it. Surface ablation is also employed in otolaryngology for several kinds of surgery, such as the one for snoring. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablation |
Radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a method of removing aberrant tissue from within the body via minimally invasive procedures, it is used to cure a variety of cardiac arrhythmia such as supraventricular tachycardia, Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome (WPW), ventricular tachycardia, and more recently as management of atrial fibrillation. The term is often used in the context of laser ablation, a process in which a laser dissolves a material's molecular bonds. For a laser to ablate tissues, the power density or fluence must be high, otherwise thermocoagulation occurs, which is simply thermal vaporization of the tissues. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablation |
Rotablation is a type of arterial cleansing that consists of inserting a tiny, diamond-tipped, drill-like device into the affected artery to remove fatty deposits or plaque. The procedure is used in the treatment of coronary heart disease to restore blood flow. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablation |
Microwave ablation (MWA) is similar to RFA but at higher frequencies of electromagnetic radiation. High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) ablation removes tissue from within the body noninvasively. Bone marrow ablation is a process whereby the human bone marrow cells are eliminated in preparation for a bone marrow transplant. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablation |
This is performed using high-intensity chemotherapy and total body irradiation. As such, it has nothing to do with the vaporization techniques described in the rest of this article. Ablation of brain tissue is used for treating certain neurological disorders, particularly Parkinson's disease, and sometimes for psychiatric disorders as well. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablation |
Recently, some researchers reported successful results with genetic ablation. In particular, genetic ablation is potentially a much more efficient method of removing unwanted cells, such as tumor cells, because large numbers of animals lacking specific cells could be generated. Genetically ablated lines can be maintained for a prolonged period of time and shared within the research community. Researchers at Columbia University report of reconstituted caspases combined from C. elegans and humans, which maintain a high degree of target specificity. The genetic ablation techniques described could prove useful in battling cancer. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ablation |
In medicine, actinic effects are generally described in terms of the dermis or outer layers of the body, such as eyes (see: Actinic conjunctivitis) and upper tissues that the sun would normally affect, rather than deeper tissues that higher-energy shorter-wavelength radiation such as x-ray and gamma might affect. Actinic is also used to describe medical conditions that are triggered by exposure to light, especially UV light (see actinic keratosis). The term actinic rays is used to refer to this phenomenon. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actinic_lighting |
In medicine, an avulsion is an injury in which a body structure is torn off by either trauma or surgery (from the Latin avellere, meaning "to tear off"). The term most commonly refers to a surface trauma where all layers of the skin have been torn away, exposing the underlying structures (i.e., subcutaneous tissue, muscle, tendons, or bone). This is similar to an abrasion but more severe, as body parts such as an eyelid or an ear can be partially or fully detached from the body. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avulsion_injuries |
In medicine, an external cause is a reason for the existence of a medical condition which can be associated with a specific object or acute process that was caused by something outside the body. Such causes are classified as "E codes" in ICD 9.External Cause of Injury Codes (E codes) are ICD-9-CM codes or ICD-10 codes that are used to define the mechanism of death or injury, along with the place of occurrence of the event. E codes are assigned on death certificates based on the manner of death. ICD-10 codes in the range V01–X59 refer to unintentional injuries. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_cause |
Codes in the range X60–X84 refer to intentional self-harm. Codes in the range Y85–Y09 refer to assault, and codes in the range Y10–Y34 refer to events of undetermined intent.E codes are well-collected on death certificate data, but less so on hospital discharge data. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_cause |
Numerous initiatives have increased the percentage of records coded (CDC, MMWR March 28, 2008 / Vol. 57 / No. RR-1). == References == | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/External_cause |
In medicine, an ossicular replacement prosthesis is a device intended to be implanted for the functional reconstruction of segments of the ossicles and facilitates the conduction of sound waves from the tympanic membrane to the inner ear. There are two common types of ossicular replacement prostheses, the total ossicular replacement prosthesis (TORP) and partial ossicular replacement prosthesis (PORP). A TORP replaces the entire ossicular chain while a PORP replaces only the incus and malleus but not the stapes. Indications for use of an ossicular replacement prosthesis include: Chronic middle ear disease Otosclerosis Congenital fixation of the stapes Secondary surgical intervention to correct for a significant and persistent conductive hearing loss from prior otologic surgery Surgically correctable injury to the middle ear from trauma == References == | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ossicular_replacement_prosthesis |
In medicine, animal allergy is hypersensitivity to certain substances produced by animals, such as the proteins in animal hair and saliva. It is a common type of allergy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_allergy |
In medicine, aortoiliac occlusive disease is a form of central artery disease involving the blockage of the abdominal aorta as it transitions into the common iliac arteries. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aortoiliac_occlusive_disease |
In medicine, astringents cause constriction or contraction of mucous membranes and exposed tissues and are often used internally to reduce discharge of blood serum and mucous secretions. This can happen with a sore throat, hemorrhages, diarrhea, and peptic ulcers. Externally applied astringents, which cause mild coagulation of skin proteins, dry, harden, and protect the skin. People with acne are often advised to use astringents if they have oily skin. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astringent |
Mild astringents relieve such minor skin irritations as those resulting from superficial cuts; allergies; insect bites; anal hemorrhoids; and fungal infections such as athlete's foot.Some common astringents are alum, acacia, sage, yarrow, witch hazel, bayberry, distilled vinegar, very cold water, and rubbing alcohol. Astringent preparations include silver nitrate, potassium permanganate, zinc oxide, zinc sulfate, Burow's solution, tincture of benzoin, and such vegetable substances as tannic and gallic acids. Balaustines are the red rose-like flowers of the pomegranate, which are very bitter to the taste. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astringent |
In medicine, their dried form has been used as an astringent. Some metal salts and acids have also been used as astringents. Redness-reducing eye drops contain an astringent. Use of Goulard's Extract has been discontinued due to lead poisoning. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astringent |
In medicine, both ancient and modern, a dyscrasia is any of various disorders. The word has ancient Greek roots meaning "bad mixture". The concept of dyscrasia was developed by the Greek physician Galen (129–216 AD), who elaborated a model of health and disease as a structure of elements, qualities, humors, organs, and temperaments (based on earlier humorism). Health was understood in this perspective to be a condition of harmony or balance among these basic components, called eucrasia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_dyscrasia |
Disease was interpreted as the disproportion of bodily fluids or four humours: phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile. The imbalance was called dyscrasia. In modern medicine, the term is still occasionally used in medical context for an unspecified disorder of the blood, such as a plasma cell dyscrasia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_dyscrasia |
In medicine, breast imaging is a sub-speciality of diagnostic radiology that involves imaging of the breasts for screening or diagnostic purposes. There are various methods of breast imaging using a variety of technologies as described in detail below. Traditional screening and diagnostic mammography ("2D mammography") uses x-ray technology and has been the mainstay of breast imaging for many decades. Breast tomosynthesis ("3D mammography") is a relatively new digital x-ray mammography technique that produces multiple image slices of the breast similar to, but distinct from, computed tomography (CT). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_imaging |
Xeromammography and galactography are somewhat outdated technologies that also use x-ray technology and are now used infrequently in the detection of breast cancer. Breast ultrasound is another technology employed in diagnosis and screening that can help differentiate between fluid filled and solid lesions, an important factor to determine if a lesion may be cancerous. Breast MRI is a technology typically reserved for high-risk patients and patients recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Lastly, scintimammography is used in a subgroup of patients who have abnormal mammograms or whose screening is not reliable on the basis of using traditional mammography or ultrasound. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_imaging |
In medicine, chemical compounds from corals can potentially be used to treat cancer, neurological diseases, inflammation including arthritis, pain, bone loss, high blood pressure and for other therapeutic uses. Coral skeletons, e.g. Isididae are being researched for their potential near-future use for bone grafting in humans. Coral Calx, known as Praval Bhasma in Sanskrit, is widely used in traditional system of Indian medicine as a supplement in the treatment of a variety of bone metabolic disorders associated with calcium deficiency. In classical times ingestion of pulverized coral, which consists mainly of the weak base calcium carbonate, was recommended for calming stomach ulcers by Galen and Dioscorides. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_microbiome |
In medicine, common types of salines include: Ringer's lactate solution Acetated Ringer's solution Intravenous sugar solutions 5% dextrose in normal saline (D5NS) 10% dextrose in normal saline (D10NS) 5% dextrose in half-normal saline (D5HNS) 10% dextrose in half-normal saline (D10HNS)And in cell biology, in addition to the above the following are used: Phosphate buffered saline (PBS) (recipes from Dulbecco = D-PBS, Galfre, Kuchler, Ausubel etc.) TRIS-buffered saline (TBS) (recipes from Goldsmith, Ausubel etc.) Hank's balanced salt solution (HBSS) Earle's balanced salt solution (EBSS) Standard saline citrate (SSC) HEPES-buffered saline (HBS) (recipes from Dittmar, Liu, Ausubel etc.) Gey's balanced salt solution (GBSS) | ERROR: type should be string, got "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3%_normal_saline" |
In medicine, comorbidity - from Latin morbus ("sickness"), co ("together"), -ity (as if - several sicknesses together) - is the presence of one or more additional conditions often co-occurring (that is, concomitant or concurrent) with a primary condition. Comorbidity describes the effect of all other conditions an individual patient might have other than the primary condition of interest, and can be physiological or psychological. In the context of mental health, comorbidity often refers to disorders that are often coexistent with each other, such as depression and anxiety disorders. The concept of multimorbidity is related to comorbidity but presents a different meaning and approach. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comorbidity |
In medicine, compliance (synonymous with adherence, capacitance) describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice. Most commonly, it refers to medication or drug compliance, but it can also apply to medical device use, self care, self-directed exercises, or therapy sessions. Both patient and health-care provider affect compliance, and a positive physician-patient relationship is the most important factor in improving compliance.As of 2003, US health care professionals more commonly used the term "adherence" to a regimen rather than "compliance", because it has been thought to reflect better the diverse reasons for patients not following treatment directions in part or in full. Additionally, the term adherence includes the ability of the patient to take medications as prescribed by their physician with regards to the correct drug, dose, route, timing, and frequency. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_compliance |
It has been noted that compliance may only refer to passively following orders. The term adherence is often used to imply a collaborative approach to decision-making and treatment between a patient and clinician.The term concordance has been used in the United Kingdom to involve a patient in the treatment process to improve compliance, and refers to a 2003 NHS initiative. In this context, the patient is informed about their condition and treatment options, involved in the decision as to which course of action to take, and partially responsible for monitoring and reporting back to the team. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_compliance |
Informed intentional non-adherence is when the patient, after understanding the risks and benefits, chooses not to take the treatment.As of 2005, the preferred terminology remained a matter of debate. As of 2007, concordance has been used to refer specifically to patient adherence to a treatment regimen which the physician sets up collaboratively with the patient, to differentiate it from adherence to a physician-only prescribed treatment regimen. Despite the ongoing debate, adherence has been the preferred term for the World Health Organization, The American Pharmacists Association, and the U.S. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_compliance |
National Institutes of Health Adherence Research Network. The Medical Subject Headings of the United States National Library of Medicine defines various terms with the words adherence and compliance. Patient Compliance and Medication Adherence are distinguished under the MeSH tree of Treatment Adherence and Compliance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_compliance |
In medicine, confusion is the quality or state of being bewildered or unclear. The term "acute mental confusion" is often used interchangeably with delirium in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems and the Medical Subject Headings publications to describe the pathology. These refer to the loss of orientation, or the ability to place oneself correctly in the world by time, location and personal identity. Mental confusion is sometimes accompanied by disordered consciousness (the loss of linear thinking) and memory loss (the inability to correctly recall previous events or learn new material). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_confusion |
In medicine, consciousness is examined using a set of procedures known as neuropsychological assessment. There are two commonly used methods for assessing the level of consciousness of a patient: a simple procedure that requires minimal training, and a more complex procedure that requires substantial expertise. The simple procedure begins by asking whether the patient is able to move and react to physical stimuli. If so, the next question is whether the patient can respond in a meaningful way to questions and commands. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenal_consciousness |
If so, the patient is asked for name, current location, and current day and time. A patient who can answer all of these questions is said to be "alert and oriented times four" (sometimes denoted "A&Ox4" on a medical chart), and is usually considered fully conscious.The more complex procedure is known as a neurological examination, and is usually carried out by a neurologist in a hospital setting. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenal_consciousness |
A formal neurological examination runs through a precisely delineated series of tests, beginning with tests for basic sensorimotor reflexes, and culminating with tests for sophisticated use of language. The outcome may be summarized using the Glasgow Coma Scale, which yields a number in the range 3–15, with a score of 3 to 8 indicating coma, and 15 indicating full consciousness. The Glasgow Coma Scale has three subscales, measuring the best motor response (ranging from "no motor response" to "obeys commands"), the best eye response (ranging from "no eye opening" to "eyes opening spontaneously") and the best verbal response (ranging from "no verbal response" to "fully oriented"). There is also a simpler pediatric version of the scale, for children too young to be able to use language.In 2013, an experimental procedure was developed to measure degrees of consciousness, the procedure involving stimulating the brain with a magnetic pulse, measuring resulting waves of electrical activity, and developing a consciousness score based on the complexity of the brain activity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenal_consciousness |
In medicine, describing a disease as acute denotes that it is of recent onset; it occasionally denotes a short duration. The quantification of how much time constitutes "short" and "recent" varies by disease and by context, but the core denotation of "acute" is always qualitatively in contrast with "chronic", which denotes long-lasting disease (for example, in acute leukaemia and chronic leukaemia). In the context of the mass noun "acute disease", it refers to the acute phase (that is, a short course) of any disease entity. For example, in an article on ulcerative enteritis in poultry, the author says, "in acute disease there may be increased mortality without any obvious signs", referring to the acute form or phase of ulcerative enteritis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_disease |
In medicine, diagnoses can be made with the assistance of microscopic observation of patient biopsies, such as cancer cells. Pathology and cytology reports include a microscopic description, which consists of analyses performed using microscopes, histochemical stains or flow cytometry. These methods can determine the structure of the diseased tissue and the severity of the disease, and early detection is possible through identification of microscopic indications of illness. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscopic_scale |
In medicine, distress is an aversive state in which a person is unable to completely adapt to difficult situations and their resulting effects and shows maladaptive behaviors. It can be evident in the presence of various phenomena, such as inappropriate social interaction (e.g., aggression, passivity, or withdrawal). Distress is the opposite of eustress, a positive emotion that motivates people. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_distress |
In medicine, diuretics are used to treat heart failure, liver cirrhosis, hypertension, influenza, water poisoning, and certain kidney diseases. Some diuretics, such as acetazolamide, help to make the urine more alkaline, and are helpful in increasing excretion of substances such as aspirin in cases of overdose or poisoning. Diuretics are sometimes abused by people with an eating disorder, especially people with bulimia nervosa, with the goal of losing weight.The antihypertensive actions of some diuretics (thiazides and loop diuretics in particular) are independent of their diuretic effect. That is, the reduction in blood pressure is not due to decreased blood volume resulting from increased urine production, but occurs through other mechanisms and at lower doses than that required to produce diuresis. Indapamide was specifically designed with this in mind, and has a larger therapeutic window for hypertension (without pronounced diuresis) than most other diuretics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diuretic_medication |
In medicine, efficacy is the capacity for beneficial change (or therapeutic effect) of a given intervention (for example a drug, medical device, surgical procedure, or a public health intervention). Establishment of the efficacy of an intervention is often done relative to other available interventions, with which it will be compared. Specifically, efficacy refers to "whether a drug demonstrates a health benefit over a placebo or other intervention when tested in an ideal situation, such as a tightly controlled clinical trial." These studies focus on a primary parameter to be shown statistically different between placebo and intervention groups. Comparisons of this type are called 'explanatory' randomized controlled trials, whereas 'pragmatic' trials are used to establish the effectiveness of an intervention regarding also non-specific parameters.Effectiveness refers to "how the drug works in a real-world situation", and is "often lower than efficacy because of interactions with other medications or health conditions of the patient, sufficient dose or duration of use not prescribed by the physician or followed by the patient, or use for an off-label condition that had not been tested." | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinical_effectiveness |
In medicine, endoscopic sleeve gastroplasty (ESG) is a minimally-invasive, non-surgical (incisionless), endoscopic weight loss procedure that is part of the field of endoscopic bariatric therapies. To perform ESG, a physician sutures a patient’s stomach into a narrower, smaller tube-like configuration. The result is a more restricted stomach that forces patients to feel fuller sooner, eating fewer calories, which facilitates weight loss . | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endoscopic_sleeve_gastroplasty |
In medicine, etiology refers to the cause or causes of diseases or pathologies. Where no etiology can be ascertained, the disorder is said to be idiopathic. Traditional accounts of the causes of disease may point to the "evil eye". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cause_(medicine) |
The Ancient Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro put forward early ideas about microorganisms in a 1st-century BC book titled On Agriculture.Medieval thinking on the etiology of disease showed the influence of Galen and of Hippocrates. Medieval European doctors generally held the view that disease was related to the air and adopted a miasmatic approach to disease etiology.Etiological discovery in medicine has a history in Robert Koch's demonstration that species of the pathogenic bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes the disease tuberculosis; Bacillus anthracis causes anthrax, and Vibrio cholerae causes cholera. This line of thinking and evidence is summarized in Koch's postulates. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cause_(medicine) |
But proof of causation in infectious diseases is limited to individual cases that provide experimental evidence of etiology.In epidemiology, several lines of evidence together are required to for causal inference. Austin Bradford Hill demonstrated a causal relationship between tobacco smoking and lung cancer, and summarized the line of reasoning in the Bradford Hill criteria, a group of nine principles to establish epidemiological causation. This idea of causality was later used in a proposal for a Unified concept of causation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cause_(medicine) |
In medicine, gluconate is used most commonly as a biologically neutral carrier of Zn2+, Ca2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, and K+ to treat electrolyte imbalance.Calcium gluconate, in the form of a gel, is used to treat burns from hydrofluoric acid; calcium gluconate injections may be used for more severe cases to avoid necrosis of deep tissues, as well as to treat hypocalcemia in hospitalized patients. Gluconate is also an electrolyte present in certain solutions, such as "plasmalyte a", used for intravenous fluid resuscitation. Quinine gluconate is a salt of gluconic acid and quinine, which is used for intramuscular injection in the treatment of malaria. Ferrous gluconate injections have been proposed in the past to treat anemia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluconic_acid |
In medicine, glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors, also GpIIb/IIIa inhibitors, is a class of antiplatelet agents. Several GpIIb/IIIa inhibitors exist: abciximab (abcixifiban) (ReoPro) eptifibatide (Integrilin) tirofiban (Aggrastat) roxifiban orbofiban | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycoprotein_IIb/IIIa_inhibitors |
In medicine, heliox generally refers to a mixture of 21% O2 (the same as air) and 79% He, although other combinations are available. Heliox generates less airway resistance than air and thereby requires less mechanical energy to ventilate the lungs. "Work of Breathing" (WOB) is reduced. It does this by two mechanisms: increased tendency to laminar flow; reduced resistance in turbulent flow.Heliox has a similar viscosity to air but a significantly lower density (0.5 g/L versus 1.2 5g/L at STP). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_gas_therapy |
Flow of gas through the airways comprises laminar flow, transitional flow and turbulent flow. The tendency for each type of flow is described by the Reynolds number. Heliox's low density produces a lower Reynolds number and hence higher probability of laminar flow for any given airway. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_gas_therapy |
Laminar flow tends to generate less resistance than turbulent flow. In the small airways where flow is laminar, resistance is proportional to gas viscosity and is not related to density and so heliox has little effect. The Hagen–Poiseuille equation describes laminar resistance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_gas_therapy |
In the large airways where flow is turbulent, resistance is proportional to density, so heliox has a significant effect. Heliox has been used medically since the early 1930s. It was the mainstay of treatment in acute asthma before the advent of bronchodilators. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_gas_therapy |
Currently, heliox is mainly used in conditions of large airway narrowing (upper airway obstruction from tumors or foreign bodies and vocal cord dysfunction). There is also some use of heliox in conditions of the medium airways (croup, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Patients with these conditions may develop a range of symptoms including dyspnea (breathlessness), hypoxemia (below-normal oxygen content in the arterial blood) and eventually a weakening of the respiratory muscles due to exhaustion, which can lead to respiratory failure and require intubation and mechanical ventilation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_gas_therapy |
Heliox may reduce all these effects, making it easier for the patient to breathe. Heliox has also found utility in the weaning of patients off mechanical ventilation, and in the nebulization of inhalable drugs, particularly for the elderly. Research has also indicated advantages in using helium–oxygen mixtures in delivery of anaesthesia. == References == | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_gas_therapy |
In medicine, hydrostatic pressure in blood vessels is the pressure of the blood against the wall. It is the opposing force to oncotic pressure. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrostatic_pressure |
In medicine, implementability is a property of clinical practice guidelines. It refers to a set of characteristics that predict ease of (and obstacles to) guideline adaptations by clinicians. There is a journal Implementation Science, which "aims to publish research relevant to the scientific study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings into routine healthcare in clinical, organisational or policy contexts". | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implementability_(medicine) |
In medicine, infusion therapy deals with all aspects of fluid and medication infusion, via intravenous or subcutaneous application. A special infusion pump can be used for this purpose. A fenestrated catheter is most frequently inserted into the localized area to be treated. There are a range of delivery methods for infusion of drugs via catheter: Electronic Pump: Drugs are often pre-mixed from vials and stored in infusion bags to be delivered by electronic pump. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infusion_therapy |
Elastomeric pump Pre-Filled Infusion Therapy: with this latest technology, a unit dose can be metered to the location from a pre-filled container.Infusion therapy has a range of medical applications including sedation, anesthesia, post-operative analgesic pain management, chemotherapy, and treatment of infectious diseases Advantages of infusion therapy over other non-site-specific delivery methodologies are primarily efficacy through precision of medication delivery. New standards for infusible pharmaceuticals have been achieved in recent years with the advent of pre-filled, ready-to-use, dose-specific products. Advanced aseptic presentation, with hermetically sealed containers, allows predictable sterility, ease of use, improved control, and lower total costs. Essentially, systematizing the delivery mechanism and standardizing the delivery container. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infusion_therapy |
In medicine, insomnia is widely measured using the Athens insomnia scale. It is measured using eight different parameters related to sleep, finally represented as an overall scale which assesses an individual's sleep pattern. A qualified sleep specialist should be consulted for the diagnosis of any sleep disorder so the appropriate measures can be taken. Past medical history and a physical examination need to be done to eliminate other conditions that could be the cause of insomnia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_aid |
After all other conditions are ruled out a comprehensive sleep history should be taken. The sleep history should include sleep habits, medications (prescription and non-prescription), alcohol consumption, nicotine and caffeine intake, co-morbid illnesses, and sleep environment. A sleep diary can be used to keep track of the individual's sleep patterns. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_aid |
The diary should include time to bed, total sleep time, time to sleep onset, number of awakenings, use of medications, time of awakening, and subjective feelings in the morning. The sleep diary can be replaced or validated by the use of out-patient actigraphy for a week or more, using a non-invasive device that measures movement.Workers who complain of insomnia should not routinely have polysomnography to screen for sleep disorders. This test may be indicated for patients with symptoms in addition to insomnia, including sleep apnea, obesity, a thick neck diameter, or high-risk fullness of the flesh in the oropharynx. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_aid |
Usually, the test is not needed to make a diagnosis, and insomnia especially for working people can often be treated by changing a job schedule to make time for sufficient sleep and by improving sleep hygiene.Some patients may need to do an overnight sleep study to determine if insomnia is present. Such a study will commonly involve assessment tools including a polysomnogram and the multiple sleep latency test. Specialists in sleep medicine are qualified to diagnose disorders within the, according to the ICSD, 81 major sleep disorder diagnostic categories. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_aid |
Patients with some disorders, including delayed sleep phase disorder, are often mis-diagnosed with primary insomnia; when a person has trouble getting to sleep and awakening at desired times, but has a normal sleep pattern once asleep, a circadian rhythm disorder is a likely cause. In many cases, insomnia is co-morbid with another disease, side-effects from medications, or a psychological problem. Approximately half of all diagnosed insomnia is related to psychiatric disorders. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_aid |
For those who have depression, "insomnia should be regarded as a co-morbid condition, rather than as a secondary one;" insomnia typically predates psychiatric symptoms. "In fact, it is possible that insomnia represents a significant risk for the development of a subsequent psychiatric disorder." Insomnia occurs in between 60% and 80% of people with depression. This may partly be due to treatment used for depression.Determination of causation is not necessary for a diagnosis. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_aid |
In medicine, intravascular volume status refers to the volume of blood in a patient's circulatory system, and is essentially the blood plasma component of the overall volume status of the body, which otherwise includes both intracellular fluid and extracellular fluid. Still, the intravascular component is usually of primary interest, and volume status is sometimes used synonymously with intravascular volume status. It is related to the patient's state of hydration, but is not identical to it. For instance, intravascular volume depletion can exist in an adequately hydrated person if there is loss of water into interstitial tissue (e.g. due to hyponatremia or liver failure). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intravascular_volume_status |
In medicine, loss of normal thermoregulation is referred to as poikilothermia. This can be seen in compartment syndrome and with use of sedative-hypnotics like barbiturates, ethanol, and chloral hydrate. REM sleep is considered a poikilothermic state in humans. Poikilothermia is one of the signs of acute limb ischemia. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poikilotherm |
In medicine, modern biotechnology has many applications in areas such as pharmaceutical drug discoveries and production, pharmacogenomics, and genetic testing (or genetic screening). In 2021, nearly 40% of the total company value of pharmaceutical biotech companies worldwide were active in Oncology with Neurology and Rare Diseases being the other two big applications. Pharmacogenomics (a combination of pharmacology and genomics) is the technology that analyses how genetic makeup affects an individual's response to drugs. Researchers in the field investigate the influence of genetic variation on drug responses in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug's efficacy or toxicity. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology_products |
The purpose of pharmacogenomics is to develop rational means to optimize drug therapy, with respect to the patients' genotype, to ensure maximum efficacy with minimal adverse effects. Such approaches promise the advent of "personalized medicine"; in which drugs and drug combinations are optimized for each individual's unique genetic makeup. Biotechnology has contributed to the discovery and manufacturing of traditional small molecule pharmaceutical drugs as well as drugs that are the product of biotechnology – biopharmaceutics. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology_products |
Modern biotechnology can be used to manufacture existing medicines relatively easily and cheaply. The first genetically engineered products were medicines designed to treat human diseases. To cite one example, in 1978 Genentech developed synthetic humanized insulin by joining its gene with a plasmid vector inserted into the bacterium Escherichia coli. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology_products |
Insulin, widely used for the treatment of diabetes, was previously extracted from the pancreas of abattoir animals (cattle or pigs). The genetically engineered bacteria are able to produce large quantities of synthetic human insulin at relatively low cost. Biotechnology has also enabled emerging therapeutics like gene therapy. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology_products |
The application of biotechnology to basic science (for example through the Human Genome Project) has also dramatically improved our understanding of biology and as our scientific knowledge of normal and disease biology has increased, our ability to develop new medicines to treat previously untreatable diseases has increased as well.Genetic testing allows the genetic diagnosis of vulnerabilities to inherited diseases, and can also be used to determine a child's parentage (genetic mother and father) or in general a person's ancestry. In addition to studying chromosomes to the level of individual genes, genetic testing in a broader sense includes biochemical tests for the possible presence of genetic diseases, or mutant forms of genes associated with increased risk of developing genetic disorders. Genetic testing identifies changes in chromosomes, genes, or proteins. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology_products |
Most of the time, testing is used to find changes that are associated with inherited disorders. The results of a genetic test can confirm or rule out a suspected genetic condition or help determine a person's chance of developing or passing on a genetic disorder. As of 2011 several hundred genetic tests were in use. Since genetic testing may open up ethical or psychological problems, genetic testing is often accompanied by genetic counseling. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biotechnology_products |
In medicine, monitoring is the observation of a disease, condition or one or several medical parameters over time. It can be performed by continuously measuring certain parameters by using a medical monitor (for example, by continuously measuring vital signs by a bedside monitor), and/or by repeatedly performing medical tests (such as blood glucose monitoring with a glucose meter in people with diabetes mellitus). Transmitting data from a monitor to a distant monitoring station is known as telemetry or biotelemetry. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_monitor |
In medicine, myopathy is a disease of the muscle in which the muscle fibers do not function properly. This results in muscular weakness. Myopathy means muscle disease (Greek: myo- muscle + patheia -pathy: suffering). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscular_disease |
This meaning implies that the primary defect is within the muscle, as opposed to the nerves ("neuropathies" or "neurogenic" disorders) or elsewhere (e.g., the brain). Muscle cramps, stiffness, and spasm can also be associated with myopathy. Capture myopathy can occur in wild or captive animals, such as deer and kangaroos, and leads to morbidity and mortality. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscular_disease |
It usually occurs as a result of stress and physical exertion during capture and restraint. Muscular disease can be classified as neuromuscular or musculoskeletal in nature. Some conditions, such as myositis, can be considered both neuromuscular and musculoskeletal. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscular_disease |
In medicine, nephelometry is used to measure immune function. It is also used in clinical microbiology, for preparation of a standardized inoculum (McFarland suspension) for antimicrobial susceptibility testing. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephelometer |
In medicine, nocturnal dialysis, refers to (renal) dialysis done at night. It usually is a reference to nocturnal hemodialysis, but could also refer to peritoneal dialysis which is typically done at night. Nocturnal hemodialysis was conceived by the late Dr. Robert Uldall at Wellesley Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The first patient trained was in April 1994. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnal_dialysis |
Conventional hemodialysis consists of a patient traveling to a clinic three times per week for a four-hour treatment. With nocturnal hemodialysis patients are trained to provide the treatments in their home six or seven nights per week for six to eight hours per treatment. There are some scientific studies which show benefits for patients using nocturnal hemodialysis versus conventional treatments, as well as many benefits that have not been studied yet. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturnal_dialysis |
In medicine, oxygen saturation refers to oxygenation, or when oxygen molecules (O2) enter the tissues of the body. In this case blood is oxygenated in the lungs, where oxygen molecules travel from the air into the blood. Oxygen saturation ((O2) sats) measures the percentage of hemoglobin binding sites in the bloodstream occupied by oxygen. Fish, invertebrates, plants, and aerobic bacteria all require oxygen. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissolved_Oxygen |
In medicine, oxygen saturation, commonly referred to as "sats", measures the percentage of hemoglobin binding sites in the bloodstream occupied by oxygen. : 370 At low partial pressures of oxygen, most hemoglobin is deoxygenated. At around 90% (the value varies according to the clinical context) oxygen saturation increases according to an oxygen-hemoglobin dissociation curve and approaches 100% at partial oxygen pressures of >11 kPa. A pulse oximeter relies on the light absorption characteristics of saturated hemoglobin to give an indication of oxygen saturation. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arterial_oxygen_saturation |
In medicine, particularly optometry, ophthalmology and orthoptics, refraction (also known as refractometry) is a clinical test in which a phoropter may be used by the appropriate eye care professional to determine the eye's refractive error and the best corrective lenses to be prescribed. A series of test lenses in graded optical powers or focal lengths are presented to determine which provides the sharpest, clearest vision.Refractive surgery is a medical procedure to treat common vision disorders. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refraction |
In medicine, patient compliance (also adherence, capacitance) describes the degree to which a patient correctly follows medical advice. Most commonly, it refers to medication or drug compliance, but it can also apply to other situations such as medical device use, self care, self-directed exercises, or therapy sessions. Both patient and health-care provider affect compliance, and a positive physician-patient relationship is the most important factor in improving compliance. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adherence_(medicine) |
Access to care plays a role in patient adherence, whereby greater wait times to access care contributing to greater absenteeism. The cost of prescription medication also plays a major role.Compliance can be confused with concordance, which is the process by which a patient and clinician make decisions together about treatment.Worldwide, non-compliance is a major obstacle to the effective delivery of health care. 2003 estimates from the World Health Organization indicated that only about 50% of patients with chronic diseases living in developed countries follow treatment recommendations with particularly low rates of adherence to therapies for asthma, diabetes, and hypertension. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adherence_(medicine) |
Major barriers to compliance are thought to include the complexity of modern medication regimens, poor health literacy and not understanding treatment benefits, the occurrence of undiscussed side effects, poor treatment satisfaction, cost of prescription medicine, and poor communication or lack of trust between a patient and his or her health-care provider. Efforts to improve compliance have been aimed at simplifying medication packaging, providing effective medication reminders, improving patient education, and limiting the number of medications prescribed simultaneously. Studies show a great variation in terms of characteristics and effects of interventions to improve medicine adherence. It is still unclear how adherence can consistently be improved in order to promote clinically important effects. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adherence_(medicine) |
In medicine, patient participation in decision-making is commonly known as 'shared decision-making' (SDM). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participative_decision-making |
In medicine, patients and physicians are often faced with difficult decisions involving tradeoffs. One example is localized prostate cancer where patients need to weigh the possibility of a prolonged life expectancy against possible stressful or unpleasant treatment side-effects (patient trade-off). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tradeoff_analysis |
In medicine, peripheral quantitative computed tomography, commonly abbreviated pQCT, is a type of quantitative computed tomography (QCT), used for making measurements of the bone mineral density (BMD) in a peripheral part of the body, such as the forearms or legs as opposed to QCT that measures bone mineral density at the hip and spine. It is useful for measuring bone strength. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantitative_computed_tomography |
In medicine, phosphate deficiency syndrome may be caused by malnutrition, by failure to absorb phosphate, and by metabolic syndromes that draw phosphate from the blood (such as in refeeding syndrome after malnutrition) or passing too much of it into the urine. All are characterised by hypophosphatemia, which is a condition of low levels of soluble phosphate levels in the blood serum and inside the cells. Symptoms of hypophosphatemia include neurological dysfunction and disruption of muscle and blood cells due to lack of ATP. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorus_compound |
Too much phosphate can lead to diarrhoea and calcification (hardening) of organs and soft tissue, and can interfere with the body's ability to use iron, calcium, magnesium, and zinc.Phosphorus is an essential macromineral for plants, which is studied extensively in edaphology to understand plant uptake from soil systems. Phosphorus is a limiting factor in many ecosystems; that is, the scarcity of phosphorus limits the rate of organism growth. An excess of phosphorus can also be problematic, especially in aquatic systems where eutrophication sometimes leads to algal blooms. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphorus_compound |
In medicine, phosphonates and bisphosphonates are commonly used as inhibitors of enzymes which utilize phosphates and diphosphates as substrates. Most notably, these enzymes include those that produce the intermediates of cholesterol biosynthesis.Phosphonate nucleotide analogues such as tenofovir, cidofovir and adefovir are critical antiviral medications, which in various pro-drug forms are used for the treatment of HIV, hepatitis B and others. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phosphonic_acids |
In medicine, pleocytosis (or pleiocytosis) is an increased cell count (from Greek pleion, "more"), particularly an increase in white blood cell count, in a bodily fluid, such as cerebrospinal fluid. It is often defined specifically as an increased white blood cell count in cerebrospinal fluid.Increased white blood cell count in the blood is called leukocytosis. == References == | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSF_pleocytosis |
In medicine, potassium acetate is used as part of electrolyte replacement protocols in the treatment of diabetic ketoacidosis because of its ability to break down to bicarbonate to help neutralize the acidotic state. In molecular biology, potassium acetate is used to precipitate dodecyl sulfate (DS) and DS-bound proteins to extract ethanol from DNA. Potassium acetate is used in mixtures applied for tissue preservation, fixation, and mummification. Most museums today use a formaldehyde-based method recommended by Kaiserling in 1897 which contains potassium acetate. This process was used to soak Lenin's corpse. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potassium_acetate |
In medicine, precocious puberty is puberty occurring at an unusually early age. In most cases, the process is normal in every aspect except the unusually early age and simply represents a variation of normal development. In a minority of children with precocious puberty, the early development is triggered by a disease such as a tumor or injury of the brain. Even when there is no disease, unusually early puberty can have adverse effects on social behavior and psychological development (have a more mature knowledge than one's age, feel inadequate, try to attend and establish friendships with older people, depression), can reduce adult height potential, and may shift some lifelong health risks. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrasexual_precocity |
Central precocious puberty can be treated by suppressing the pituitary hormones that induce sex steroid production. The opposite condition is delayed puberty.The term is used with several slightly different meanings that are usually apparent from the context. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrasexual_precocity |
In its broadest sense, and often simplified as early puberty, "precocious puberty" sometimes refers to any physical sex hormone effect, due to any cause, occurring earlier than the usual age, especially when it is being considered as a medical problem. Stricter definitions of "precocity" may refer only to central puberty starting before a statistically specified age based on percentile in the population (e.g., 2.5 standard deviations below the population mean), on expert recommendations of ages at which there is more than a negligible chance of discovering an abnormal cause, or based on opinion as to the age at which early puberty may have adverse effects. A common definition for medical purposes is onset before 8 years in girls or 9 years in boys. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrasexual_precocity |
In medicine, pressure is still generally measured in millimetres of mercury. These measurements are in general given relative to the current atmospheric pressure: for example, a blood pressure of 120 mmHg, when the current atmospheric pressure is 760 mmHg, means 880 mmHg relative to perfect vacuum. Routine pressure measurements in medicine include: Blood pressure, measured with a sphygmomanometer Intraocular pressure, with a tonometer Cerebrospinal fluid pressure Intracranial pressure Intramuscular pressure (compartment syndrome) Central venous pressure Pulmonary artery catheterization Mechanical ventilationIn physiology manometric units are used to measure Starling forces. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mm_of_mercury |
In medicine, pronator drift (also known as pyramidal drift) refers to a pathologic sign seen during a neurological examination. Jean Alexandre Barré is credited with having first described it; thus it is sometimes known as the Barré test or sign. A positive result indicates palsy. This sign can appear due to an upper motor neuron lesion or various other conditions (including inborn errors of metabolism) which include palsy as a symptom. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronator_drift |
In medicine, protein electrophoresis is a method of analysing the proteins mainly in blood serum. Before the widespread use of gel electrophoresis, protein electrophoresis was performed as free-flow electrophoresis (on paper) or as immunoelectrophoresis.Traditionally, two classes of blood proteins are considered: serum albumin and globulin. They are generally equal in proportion, but albumin as a molecule is much smaller and lightly, negatively-charged, leading to an accumulation of albumin on the electrophoretic gel. A small band before albumin represents transthyretin (also named prealbumin). | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_electrophoresis_of_proteins |
Some forms of medication or body chemicals can cause their own band, but it usually is small. Abnormal bands (spikes) are seen in monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and multiple myeloma, and are useful in the diagnosis of these conditions.The globulins are classified by their banding pattern (with their main representatives): The alpha (α) band consists of two parts, 1 and 2: α1 - α1-antitrypsin, α1-acid glycoprotein. α2 - haptoglobin, α2-macroglobulin, α2-antiplasmin, ceruloplasmin. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_electrophoresis_of_proteins |
The beta (β) band - transferrin, LDL, complement The gamma (γ) band - immunoglobulin (IgA, IgD, IgE, IgG and IgM). Paraproteins (in multiple myeloma) usually appear in this band.Normal present medical procedure involves determination of numerous proteins in plasma including hormones and enzymes, some of them also determined by electrophoresis. However, gel electrophoresis is mainly a research tool, also when the subject is blood proteins. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gel_electrophoresis_of_proteins |
In medicine, proteinopathy (; -pathy ; proteinopathies pl. ; proteinopathic adj), or proteopathy, protein conformational disorder, or protein misfolding disease, is a class of diseases in which certain proteins become structurally abnormal, and thereby disrupt the function of cells, tissues and organs of the body. Often the proteins fail to fold into their normal configuration; in this misfolded state, the proteins can become toxic in some way (a toxic gain-of-function) or they can lose their normal function. The proteinopathies include such diseases as Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease and other prion diseases, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyloidosis, multiple system atrophy, and a wide range of other disorders. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_misfolding_disease |
The term proteopathy was first proposed in 2000 by Lary Walker and Harry LeVine.The concept of proteopathy can trace its origins to the mid-19th century, when, in 1854, Rudolf Virchow coined the term amyloid ("starch-like") to describe a substance in cerebral corpora amylacea that exhibited a chemical reaction resembling that of cellulose. In 1859, Friedreich and Kekulé demonstrated that, rather than consisting of cellulose, "amyloid" actually is rich in protein. Subsequent research has shown that many different proteins can form amyloid, and that all amyloids show birefringence in cross-polarized light after staining with the dye Congo red, as well as a fibrillar ultrastructure when viewed with an electron microscope. However, some proteinaceous lesions lack birefringence and contain few or no classical amyloid fibrils, such as the diffuse deposits of amyloid beta (Aβ) protein in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Furthermore, evidence has emerged that small, non-fibrillar protein aggregates known as oligomers are toxic to the cells of an affected organ, and that amyloidogenic proteins in their fibrillar form may be relatively benign. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_misfolding_disease |
In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam radiotherapy is that the dose of protons is deposited over a narrow range of depth; hence in minimal entry, exit, or scattered radiation dose to healthy nearby tissues. When evaluating whether to treat a tumor with photon or proton therapy, physicians may choose proton therapy if it is important to deliver a higher radiation dose to targeted tissues while significantly decreasing radiation to nearby organs at risk. The American Society for Radiation Oncology Model Policy for Proton Beam therapy says proton therapy is considered reasonable if sparing the surrounding normal tissue "cannot be adequately achieved with photon-based radiotherapy" and can benefit the patient. Like photon radiation therapy, proton therapy is often used in conjunction with surgery and/or chemotherapy to most effectively treat cancer. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy |
In medicine, public health, and biology, transmission is the passing of a pathogen causing communicable disease from an infected host individual or group to a particular individual or group, regardless of whether the other individual was previously infected. The term strictly refers to the transmission of microorganisms directly from one individual to another by one or more of the following means: airborne transmission – very small dry and wet particles that stay in the air for long periods of time allowing airborne contamination even after the departure of the host. Particle size < 5 μm. droplet transmission – small and usually wet particles that stay in the air for a short period of time. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease_spread |
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