tetanus
The definitions used in this glossary of terminology either have been provided by the authors of the articles, or have been extracted wholly or in part, or paraphrased from the following sources: The American Medical Association Encyclopedia of Medicine, Charles B. Clayman, MD, Medical Editor, Random House, New York, 1989; Biotechnology from A to Z, 2d Edition, William Bains, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; A Dictionary of Genetics, 6th Edition, Robert C. King and William D. Stansfield, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2002; Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 29th and 30th Editions, W. B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia, 2000, 2003; Genes VII, Benjamin Lewin, Oxford University Press, New York, New York, 2000; The Gale Encyclopedia of Genetic Disorders, Volumes I and II, Stacey L. Blachford, Ed., Thomson Learning, New York, New York, 2002; The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, Massachusetts, 1997; Molecular Biology of the Cell, 3rd Edition, Bruce Alberts, et al., Garland Publishing, 1994; The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged Edition, 1966; Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1991.
DEFINITION:
- tetanus
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1. An acute, often fatal infectious disease caused by the bacillus Clostridium tetani , which produces the neurotoxin tetanospasmin; it usually enters the body through a contaminated puncture wound (such as from a metal nail, wood splinter, or insect bite), although other portals of entry include burns, surgical wounds, cutaneous ulcers, injection sites of drug abusers, the umbilical stump of neonates ( tetanus neonatorum ), and the postpartum uterus. Generalized tetanus is characterized by tetanic muscular contractions and hyperreflexia, resulting in trismus (lockjaw), glottal spasm, generalized muscle spasm, opisthotonos, respiratory spasm, seizures, and paralysis. Localized tetanus may be mild, with localized muscular twitching and spasm of muscle groups near the site of injury, or it may progress to the generalized form.
2. Physiological tetanus; a state of sustained muscular contraction without periods of relaxation caused by repetitive stimulation of the motor nerve trunk at frequencies so high that individual muscle twitches are fused and cannot be distinguished from one another; called also tetanic or tonic contraction and tetanic or tonic spasm .
Used in 1 Article translation
Used in 1 Article translation