Medical Dictionary Definitions A-Z List
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z - «D»:
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Dactyledema
Dactyledema: Swelling of the fingers or toes....
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Dactylitis
Dactylitis: Inflammation of a digit (either a finger
or a toe).
Dactyl comes from the Greek "daktylos" meaning "finger." It now
refers not only to the fingers but also the toes. Dactyledema is
edema (swelling) of the fingers or toes; dactylomegaly is enlargement
of the fingers or toes; dactylo...
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Daily Prayer of a Physician
Daily Prayer of a Physician: A prayer that is
said to have been written by the 12th-century physician-philosopher
Moses Maimonides. Like the famous oath of Hippocrates,
the prayer of Maimonides is often recited by new medical graduates.
This prayer, which is also called the "Prayer of Moses
Ma...
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Daily Value
Daily Value: DV, a term on food labels based on the RDA (Recommended Dietary Allowance) designed to help consumers use food label information to plan a healthy diet.
The Daily Value serves as a basis for declaring on the
label the percent of the DV for each nutrient that a
serving of the food pr...
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Daltonism
Daltonism: Colorblindness of
the red-green type (also known as deuteranopia or deuteranomaly).
The term "Daltonism" is derived from the name of the chemist and physicist, John Dalton (1766-1844). Dalton was born in a village in Cumberland, England where his father, Joseph, was a weaver in poor ci...
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Dancing mania of Maracaibo
Dancing mania of Maracaibo: Huntington disease. Beginning in the 1950s Dr. Americo Negrette observed a number of people with a dancing mania in villages along Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela. The syndrome was then called el mal (the bad) or el mal de San Vito (the sickness of Saint Vitus). Dr. Negrette di...
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Dander
Dander: Tiny scales shed from human or animal skin or hair. Dander floats in the air, settles on surfaces and makes up much household dust. Cat dander is a classic cause of allergic reactions....
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Danders
Danders: See: Dander....
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Dandruff
Dandruff: A mild skin condition that produces white flakes that may be shed and fall from the hair.
Dandruff is due to the sebaceous glands overworking. (The sebaceous glands keep the skin properly oiled.) Another cause of dandruff is fungus, especially one called Pitrosporum ovale. (Most people ...
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Dandy fever
Dandy fever: An acute mosquito-
borne viral illness of sudden onset that usually follows a
benign course with headache, fever, prostration, severe
joint and muscle pain, swollen glands (lymphadenopathy) and
rash. The presence (the "dengue triad") of fever, rash, and
headache (and other pains) i...
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Danlos syndrome
Danlos syndrome:
Better known today as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), this is an inherited disorder with easy bruising, joint hypermobility (loose joints), skin laxity, and weakness of tissues.
There are a number of different Ehlers-Danlos syndromes
which share these features but can be categorized ...
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Dannie Abse
Dannie Abse: See: Abse, Dannie....
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Danon disease
Danon disease: A genetic disorder
characterized by heart problems, mental retardation and muscle weakness. Changes in the retina of the eye, leading to
visual disturbances, may be present. Males are more severely affected and show
symptoms in childhood or early adolescence, while affected females...
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Darier disease
Darier disease: A genetic skin disease
characterized by slowly progressive hardening of the skin (keratoses) around the hair follicles. This disorder is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner and is due to mutation in a gene called ATP2A2 on chromosome 12. Also
known as keratosis follicularis....
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Dark adaptometry
Dark adaptometry: A type of electrophysiologic retinal testing done to measure the period of time which passes before the retina regains its maximal sensitivity to low amounts of light when going from conditions of bright light to darkness....
