Medical Dictionary Definitions A-Z List
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z - «C»:
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Cardiac conduction system
Cardiac conduction system: The electrical conduction system that controls the heart rate. This system generates electrical impulses and conducts them throughout the muscle of the heart, stimulating the heart to contract and pump blood.
Among the major elements in the cardiac conduction system are t...
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Cardiac defibrillator, implantable
Cardiac defibrillator, implantable: A device put within the body that is designed to recognize certain types of abnormal heart rhythms (arrhythmias) and correct them.
Defibrillators continuously monitor the heart rhythm in order to detect overly rapid arrhythmias such as
Ventricular tachycardia (r...
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Cardiac index
Cardiac index: A cardiodynamic measure based on the cardiac output, which is the amount of blood the left ventricle ejects into the systemic circulation in one minute, measured in liters per minute (l/min). Cardiac output can be indexed to a patient's body size by dividing by the body surface area (...
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Cardiac insufficiency
Cardiac insufficiency: See: Heart failure....
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Cardiac muscle
Cardiac muscle: A type of muscle with unique features
only found in the heart. The cardiac muscle is the muscle of the
heart and medically is called the myocardium ("myo-" being the prefix
renoting muscle). ...
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Cardiac myocyte
Cardiac myocyte: A heart muscle cell. Sometimes called a myocyte when it is understood that it is in the heart. See also: Myocyte....
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Cardiac myxoma
Cardiac myxoma: A benign tumor of the heart and the most common type of heart tumor in adults. Cardiac myxomas can appear in an isolated case or in families, sometimes as part of an hereditary syndrome called the Carney complex. Some families have the Carney complex variant as well as the trismus-ps...
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Cardiac output
Cardiac output: The amount of blood that is pumped by the
heart per unit time, measured in liters per minute (l/min).
The amount of blood that is put out by the left ventricle of the
heart in one contraction is called the stroke volume. The stroke
volume multiplied by the heart rate is the cardia...
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Cardiac rehabilitation
Cardiac rehabilitation: A program for people with heart disease designed to reduce future heart risks. Cardiac rehabilitation
usually consists of nutritional counseling; management of lipid levels, hypertension, weight, and diabetes; smoking
cessation; psychosocial interventions; physical activit...
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Cardiac septum
Cardiac septum: The septum
of the heart is the dividing wall between the right and left sides of the heart.
That portion of the septum that separates the two upper chambers (the right and left atria) of the heart is
termed the atrial (or interatrial) septum while the portion of the septum that lie...
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Cardiac stress testing, exercise
Cardiac stress testing, exercise: The exercise cardiac stress testing (ECST) is the most widely used cardiac (heart) screening test. The patient exercises on a treadmill according to a standardized protocol, with progressive increases in the speed and elevation of the treadmill (typically changing...
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Cardiac tamponade
Cardiac tamponade: A life-threatening situation in which there is such
a large amount of blood or other fluid inside the pericardial sac around the
heart that it interferes with the performance of the heart. If cardiac tamponade
is left untreated, the result is dangerously low blood pressure, sho...
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Cardiac transplant
Cardiac transplant: See: Heart transplant....
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Cardiac ventricle
Cardiac ventricle: One of
the two lower chambers of the heart.
The right ventricle is the chamber that receives blood from the right atrium and pumps
it into the lungs via the pulmonary artery while the left ventricle is the chamber that receives blood from the left atrium and pumps
it into the ...
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Cardiac-limb syndrome
Cardiac-limb syndrome: See: Holt-Oram syndrome....
