Medical Dictionary Definitions A-Z List
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z - «D»:
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Deformity, Klippel-Feil
Deformity, Klippel-Feil: See: Klippel-Feil sequence....
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Degeneration, macular
Degeneration, macular: A disease that progressively destroys the macula, the central portion of the retina, impairing central vision. Macular degeneration rarely causes blindness because only the center of vision is affected. However, injury to the macula in the center of the retina can impair the ...
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Degenerative arthritis
Degenerative arthritis: Also known as osteoarthritis,
this type of arthritis is caused by inflammation, breakdown and eventual loss of the
cartilage of the joints. Among the over 100 different types of arthritis conditions,
osteoarthritis is the most common, affecting usually the hands, feet, spine,...
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Degenerative joint disease
Degenerative joint disease: Also known as
osteoarthritis, this type of arthritis is caused by inflammation, breakdown and eventual
loss of the cartilage of the joints. Among the over 100 different types of arthritis
conditions, osteoarthritis is the most common, affecting usually the hands, feet, s...
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Deglutition
Deglutition: The act of swallowing, particularly the swallowing of food. The muscles of deglutition are the muscles employed in the act of swallowing.
"Deglutition" is a French word, which evolved from the Latin "deglutire" (to swallow down). Related to "glutton" (someone who eats too much)....
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Dehisce
Dehisce: To burst open or gape. A surgical wound may partially or completely dehisce after surgery, depending upon whether some or all of the layers of tissue come open. The noun is dehiscence. From the Latin dehiscere (to split open), from hiscere (to gape, yawn), from the Latin hiare (to yawn)....
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DEHP
DEHP: A softener for polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a plastic polymer used in a wide array of products. Unplasticized PVC is hard and brittle at room temperature. A plasticizer (softener) is typically added to increase the flexibility of the polymer. DEHP is the plasticizer for most PVC medical devices. ...
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Dehydration
Dehydration: Excessive loss of body water. Diseases of the
gastrointestinal tract that cause vomiting or diarrhea may, for
example, lead to dehydration. There are a number of other causes of
dehydration including heat exposure, prolonged vigorous exercise (e.g.,
in a marathon), kidney disease, a...
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Dehydroepiandrosterone
Dehydroepiandrosterone: DHEA. A steroid hormone made by the adrenal glands that acts on the body much like testosterone and is converted into testosterone and estrogen. DHEA and its sulfate (DHEAS) are abundant in the body, but their normal roles are not fully understood. The blood levels of DHEA an...
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Deinococcus radiodurans
Deinococcus radiodurans: A bacterium that can
survives extremely high levels of radiation and therefore has high potential for radioactive waste cleanup. The genome of Deinococcus radiodurans has been sequenced. It is composed of two chromosomes, a megaplasmid, and a small plasmid. The total genome ...
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Deja vu
Deja vu: (In French, dejà vu means "already seen." and the word dejà has an acute accent on the e and a grave accent on the à but we have omitted the accents from the entry term for the sake of the English-speaking search engine.)
Dejà vu is a disquieting feeling of having been
somewhere or d...
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Dejerine-Klumpke palsy
Dejerine-Klumpke palsy: See: Klumpke palsy....
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Dejerine-Klumpke paralysis
Dejerine-Klumpke paralysis: See: Klumpke palsy....
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Delay, developmental
Delay, developmental: Behind schedule in reaching
milestones of early childhood development. ...
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Deletion
Deletion: Loss of a segment of DNA from a chromosome (and hence from the genome).
The first human chromosome deletion was detected in 1963 by Jerome Lejeune and his colleagues in Paris. They discovered loss of part of 5p, the short (p) arm of chromosome 5, in children with a hitherto-undescribed co...
