congestive heart failure

DEFINITION:

A clinical syndrome due to heart disease, characterized by breathlessness and abnormal sodium and water retention, often resulting in edema. The congestion may occur in the lungs or peripheral circulation or both, depending on whether the heart failure is right-sided or general.

suppressed

DEFINITION:

1. Held back or checked.
2. Stopped or inhibited, as of a secretion, excretion, normal discharge, or other function.
3. In psychiatry, describing the conscious inhibition of an unacceptable impulse or idea, as contrasted with repression, which is unconscious.
4. In genetics, describing the masking of the phenotypic expression of a mutation by the occurrence of a second (suppressor) mutation at a different site from the first; the organism appears to be reverted but is in fact doubly mutant.
5. Describing the inhibition of the erythrocytic stage of Plasmodium to prevent clinical attacks of malaria; used for prophylaxis.
6. Describing the cortical inhibition of perception of objects in all or part of the visual field of one eye during binocular vision.

plasma

DEFINITION:

1. The fluid portion of the blood in which the particulate components are suspended. Plasma is to be distinguished from serum , which is the cell-free portion of the blood from which the fibrinogen has been separated in the process of clotting. See blood plasma .
2. The lymph deprived of its corpuscles or cells.
3. A glycerite of starch used in preparing ointments.
4. Cytoplasm or protoplasm.

concentrations

DEFINITION:

1. Increases in strength by evaporation.

2. The ratios of the mass or volume of a solute to the mass or volume of the solution or solvent.

vasopressin

DEFINITION:

1. One of two octapeptide hormones formed by the neuronal cells of the hypothalamic nuclei and stored in the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland (neurohypophysis), the other being oxytocin. It stimulates the contraction of the muscular tissue of the capillaries and arterioles, raising the blood pressure. It promotes contraction of the intestinal musculature and increases peristalsis, and also exerts some contractile influence on the uterus. It also has a specific effect on the epithelial cells of the distal portion of the uriniferous tubule, augmenting resorption of water independently of solutes, resulting in concentration of urine and dilution of blood serum. Its rate of secretion is regulated chiefly by the osmolarity of the plasma.

2. [USP], A pharmaceutical preparation of the same principle, prepared synthetically or obtained from the posterior pituitary of healthy domestic animals used for food by man; used mainly as an antidiuretic in the treatment of acute or chronic diabetes insipidus, administered intramuscularly as a test of hypothalamo-neurohypophysial-renal function in distinguishing central from nephrogenic diabetes insipidus; it may also be used to stimulate smooth muscle tissue, especially to induce vasoconstriction in the presence of hemorrhage. Called also antidiuretic hormone (ADH).

mean

DEFINITION:

1. An average; a number that in some sense represents the central value of a set of numbers.
2. Arithmetic mean.
3. In probability and statistics, the expected value (mathematical expectation) of a random variable, the limiting value to which the sample mean converges as the sample size is increased indefinitely (if the limit exists).

AVP

DEFINITION:

Arginine vasopressin.

concentration

DEFINITION:

1. Increase in strength by evaporation.

2. The ratio of the mass or volume of a solute to the mass or volume of the solution or solvent.

platelet

DEFINITION:

A disk-shaped structure, 2 to 4 µm in diameter, found in the blood of all mammals and chiefly known for its role in blood coagulation; platelets, which are formed in the megakaryocyte and released from its cytoplasm in clusters, lack a nucleus and DNA but contain active enzymes and mitochondria. Called also "blood disk," "blood platelet," and "thrombocyte."

AVP

DEFINITION:

Arginine vasopressin.

concentrations

DEFINITION:

1. Increases in strength by evaporation.

2. The ratios of the mass or volume of a solute to the mass or volume of the solution or solvent.

plasma

DEFINITION:

1. The fluid portion of the blood in which the particulate components are suspended. Plasma is to be distinguished from serum , which is the cell-free portion of the blood from which the fibrinogen has been separated in the process of clotting. See blood plasma .
2. The lymph deprived of its corpuscles or cells.
3. A glycerite of starch used in preparing ointments.
4. Cytoplasm or protoplasm.

osmolality

DEFINITION:

The concentration of an osmotic solution especially when measured in osmols or milliosmols per 1000 grams of solvent.
Osmolality is a measure of the concentration of particles in a solution. A highly concentrated solution will have a high osmolality. That is, it will have more particles per unit of solvent than a solution with a low osmolality. (JC)

concentration

DEFINITION:

1. Increase in strength by evaporation.

2. The ratio of the mass or volume of a solute to the mass or volume of the solution or solvent.

cardiac

DEFINITION:

1. Pertaining to the heart.

2. A cordial, or restorative medicine.

3. A person with a heart disorder.

4. Pertaining to the orifice (ostium cardiacum) between the esophagus and the part of the stomach immediately adjacent to and surrounding the orifice (pars cardiaca gastris).

index

DEFINITION:

1. The second digit of the hand, the finger adjacent to the thumb; called also forefinger , index finger , and digitus secundus manus .

2. A unitless quantity, usually a ratio of two measurable quantities having the same dimensions, or such a ratio multiplied by 100.

3. A core or mold used in dentistry to record or maintain the relative position of a tooth or teeth to one another and/or to a cast, to ensure reproduction in the dental prosthesis of their original position.

4. A directory, in particular an alphabetized list of terms, each term accompanied by page numbers or other notations telling where it appears in a given work or set of works.

5. A subscript, as in x_i, used to indicate that there is a collection of objects, one corresponding to each value of the subscript, with the sequence indexed by i. For example, the sequence x₁, x₂, x₃,...can be written x_i, i = 1, 2, 3,....

pulmonary

DEFINITION:

1. Pertaining to the lungs. Called also pneumonic and pulmonic .
2. Pulmonic (def. 2).

capillary

DEFINITION:

1. Pertaining to or resembling a hair.

2. Any of the minute vessels that connect the arterioles and venules, forming a network in nearly all parts of the body. Their walls act as semipermeable membranes for the interchange of various substances, including fluids, between the blood and tissue fluid. The two principal types are continuous capillaries and fenestrated capillaries. Called also vas capillare.

3. Vas lymphocapillare.

percentage

DEFINITION:

1. A part of a whole expressed in hundredths.
2. The result obtained by multiplying a number by a percent.
3. Advantage, profit.
4. Probability; favorable odds.

cardiac

DEFINITION:

1. Pertaining to the heart.

2. A cordial, or restorative medicine.

3. A person with a heart disorder.

4. Pertaining to the orifice (ostium cardiacum) between the esophagus and the part of the stomach immediately adjacent to and surrounding the orifice (pars cardiaca gastris).

cardiac

DEFINITION:

1. Pertaining to the heart.

2. A cordial, or restorative medicine.

3. A person with a heart disorder.

4. Pertaining to the orifice (ostium cardiacum) between the esophagus and the part of the stomach immediately adjacent to and surrounding the orifice (pars cardiaca gastris).

urinary osmolality

DEFINITION:

The concentration of osmotically active particles in solution (in this case, urine) expressed in terms of osmoles of solute per kilogram of solvent. The osmolality is directly proportional to the colligative properties of solutions: osmotic pressure, boiling point elevation, freezing point depression, and vapor pressure lowering.

abstract

DEFINITION:

1. A summary or epitome of a book, paper, or case history.


2. Considered apart from a particular instance.


3. Expressing a quality apart from an object.


4. Having only intrinsic form with little or no pictorial representation.

truncated

DEFINITION:

Having the end cut squarely off.

permission

DEFINITION:

Formal consent; authorization.