Word Of The Day
Dorland's Word of the Day is a great way to broaden your knowledge of medical terminology. With a new and interesting term brought to you from the 32nd edition of Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary each day, it's an easy and fun way to increase your medical vocabulary!
You can view a new word on this website each day.
Today's Word
triceps skinfold (TSF) thickness
a measurement of subcutaneous fat taken by measuring a fold of skin running parallel to the length of the upper limb over the triceps muscle midway between the acromion and olecranon; used as a means of estimating percentage of body fat.
Word of the Day Archive
thiazolidinedione
any of a group of structurally related oral antihyperglycemic agents that increase insulin-stimulated glucose uptake by skeletal muscle cells, reducing insulin resistance in peripheral tissues, and decrease lipolysis in adipocytes.
thesaurocyte
an abnormal plasma cell that is distended with homogeneous cytoplasm that stains gray or red, possibly owing to a disturbance in synthesis of immunoglobulin A; it may be related to a flaming plasma cell.
tolbutamide test
(for insulinoma) tolbutamide is administered intravenously and plasma levels of glucose and insulin are monitored for 3 hours; prolonged hypoglycemia with hyperinsulinemia indicates presence of an insulinoma.
opticokinetic drum test
a test of vision using a rotating drum or other figure painted with vertical black and white stripes; because the eye involuntarily follows such a figure, it is used in the differential diagnosis of psychogenic blindness, to detect the presence of vision in infants, and is also used in checking the normality of opticokinetic nystagmus. Called also optokinetic test and optokinetic drum test.
King-Devick test
a tool for evaluation of saccade, consisting of a series of charts of numbers; the charts become progressively more difficult to read in a flowing manner because of increasing space between the numbers. Both errors in reading and speed of reading are included in deriving a score.
hydrogen breath test
(for deficiency of lactase or other hydrolases, or colonic overgrowth of bacteria): a known quantity of carbohydrate is administered and the subject's exhalations are subsequently trapped and measured at timed intervals; patients unable to digest or absorb carbohydrates in the small intestine will have excess carbohydrates in the colon which are broken down there by bacterial fermentation, causing an increase of blood hydrogen and thus of hydrogen exhaled by the lungs.
gaze test
(for ocular and vestibular functioning): movements of the eye are recorded with the patient gazing straight at an object and at positions off to different sides of it; then with eyes closed for 20 seconds, the patient must perform a small mental exercise. The eyes normally should assume a center gaze while they are closed.