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
perflutren
a fluorocarbon used as an ultrasound contrast imaging agent in diagnostic cardiology and radiology.
Word of the Day Archive
peginterferon alfa-2b
a covalent conjugate of recombinant interferon alfa-2b and polyethylene glycol (PEG), with the former moiety responsible for the biological activity; it is a biological response modifier, administered subcutaneously in the treatment of chronic infection by hepatitis C virus.
pegaspargase
L-asparaginase derived from Escherichia coli and covalently linked to polyethylene glycol; used as an antineoplastic in the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, administered intramuscularly or intravenously.
accessory conducting pathway
myocardial fibers that propagate the atrial contraction impulse to the ventricles but are not a part of the normal atrioventricular conducting system; impulses conducted over such a pathway can cause preexcitation.
abdominal paracentesis
insertion of a trocar through a small incision into the peritoneal cavity to inject a therapeutic agent or remove ascitic fluid such as in a patient with cirrhosis of the liver. Called also abdominocentesis and peritoneocentesis.
pamidronate (APD)
an aminohydroxypropylidene-substituted diphosphonate compound with an affinity for sites of osteoid mineralization; it inhibits bone resorption by adsorbing onto hydroxyapatite crystals in mineralized bone matrix and reducing its solubility, and possibly also by inhibiting osteoclast activity. Complexed with technetium 99m, it is used in bone imaging. The disodium salt, pamidronate disodium, is used in the treatment of malignancy-associated hypercalcemia, osteitis deformans, and osteolytic bone metastases associated with breast cancer and myeloma; administered intravenously.
palivizumab
a humanized monoclonal antibody produced by recombinant DNA technology and directed against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV); used as a passive immunizing agent in susceptible infants and children, administered intramuscularly.
circumventricular organs
several small structures located around the edges of the third and fourth ventricles, lacking the regular blood-brain barrier and thus serving as significant sites for neural-endocrine interaction. They include the area postrema, median eminence, subcommissural organ, subfornical organ, and organum vasculosum of lamina terminalis. Sometimes also included are the funiculus separans, neurohypophysis, and pineal body.