Medical Dictionary Definitions A-Z List
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z - «Y»:
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Yellow enzyme, Warburg's
Yellow enzyme, Warburg's: A key respiratory enzyme discovered by the German biochemist Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883-1970), a pioneer in research on the respiration of cells and the metabolism of tumors. Warburg's yellow enzyme is a flavoprotein that catalyzes an oxidation-reduction reaction necessar...
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Yellow enzymes
Yellow enzymes: A group of respiratory enzymes that catalyze reactions in the body permitting cells to respire, to breath. These biochemical reactions are termed oxidation-reduction reactions.
The first yellow enzyme was discovered by the German biochemist Otto Heinrich Warburg (1883-1970), a pione...
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Yellow fever
Yellow fever: An acute systemic (bodywide) illness caused
by a virus called a Flavivirus. In severe cases, the viral infection causes a high fever, bleeding into the skin, and necrosis (death) of cells in the kidney and liver. The damage done to the liver from the virus results in severe jaundice ...
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Yellow fever vaccination
Yellow fever vaccination: A live attenuated (weakened) viral vaccine that is recommended for people traveling to or living in tropical areas in the Americas and Africa where yellow fever occurs. Because it is a live vaccine, it should not be given to infants or people with immune-system problems.
Ye...
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Yellow jack
Yellow jack: 1) The flag displayed from lazarettos, naval hospitals, and vessels in quarantine.
2) Synonym for yellow fever as, for example, in "...Fernando passed a few weeks recovering from a touch of yellow jack." ...
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Yellow jacket sting
Yellow jacket sting: A sting from a yellow jacket (or other large stinging insects such as bees, hornets and wasps) can trigger allergic reactions ranging from local responses of limited duration to catastrophic general reactions which can be fatal. The susceptibility to severe reactions appears inh...
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Yerba mate
Yerba mate: A stimulant beverage similar to tea, very popular in South America, brewed from the dried leaves and stemlets of a member of the holly family known botanically as Ilex paraguayensis.
Despite claims to the contrary, Yerba mate does contain caffeine although the level is relatively low co...
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Yersinia
Yersinia: A group of bacteria that appear rod-like under the microscope and include Yersinia pestis (the cause of the bubonic and pneumonic plague), Yersinia entercolitica (the cause of a disease called yersinosis), and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis (which causes a condition called mesenteric adenitis...
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Yersinia enterocolitica
Yersinia enterocolitica: A bacterium that causes an infectious disease called yersiniosis. Yersinia enterocolitica is a member of the Yersinia family of bacteria.
Common symptoms of yersiniosis in children (who most often contract the disease) are fever, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, which is often...
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Yersinia pestis
Yersinia pestis: The bacteria that causes the bubonic plague which in the year 541 (as the Black Death) and later in the Middle Ages decimated Europe. The effects of the plague are described in the nursery rhyme "We all fall down."
Y. pestis mainly infects rats and other rodents which are the prime...
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Yersinia pestis genome
Yersinia pestis genome: See: Plague bacterium genome....
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Yersiniosis
Yersiniosis: An infectious disease caused by a bacterium called Yersinia enterocolitica (and, less often, other forms of Yersinia). The infection can cause a variety of symptoms depending on the age of the person infected. Common symptoms in children (who most often contract the disease) are fever, ...
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Yoga
Yoga: A way of life that includes ethical precepts, dietary prescriptions, and physical exercise. Its practitioners believe that their discipline has the capacity to alter mental and bodily responses normally thought to be far beyond a person's ability to modulate them. During the past 80 years, hea...
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Yogurt
Yogurt: A common dish made of
milk curdled and fermented with a culture of Lactobacillus (the
milk bacillus). The word was acquired in the 1620s from Turkey.
It can be spelled myriad ways including yogurt, yoghurt,
yaghourt, yooghurt, yughard, and yaourt. The most popular
spellings in the Anglo-Saxo...
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Yolk sac
Yolk sac: Not all yolk has to do with birds' eggs. Human embryos have a yolk sac, too. The human yolk sac is a membrane outside the embryo that is connected by a tube (the yolk stalk) though the umbilical opening to the embryo's midgut. The yolk sac serves as an early site for the formation of blood...
