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:

hypertonic dehydration

Body fluids, in particular blood plasma, the extracellular interstitial fluid and the intracellular fluid, are complex mixtures of minerals and organic matter dissolved in water. Normally the amounts of water and solutes are constant, defining the tonicity of the fluid. Dehydration is the result of loss of volume of body fluids. If the loss is mainly of dissolved minerals, the residual body fluid is diluted and the condition is termed hypotonic dehydration. If the loss is primarily of water, as is so frequent in nephrogenic diabetes insipidus, the remaining minerals become concentrated, and the condition is termed hypertonic dehydration (Crawford).