Medical Terminology: Definitions and Key Concepts
Stroke: A stroke occurs when the brain suddenly loses blood supply, often due to a clot blocking an artery or a ruptured cerebral blood vessel. This can cause injury or even death.
Allele: One of the possible forms of a gene.
Allogeneic: Refers to a tissue or organ transplanted from a person of the same species.
Anatomy Pathogenesis: The science that deals with the effects of disorders and injuries.
Sign: Objective data obtained from a patient examination, such as pulse, blood pressure, and body temperature.
Antibiotic: A substance used to destroy bacteria or prevent their growth. Antibiotics act on the metabolism of prokaryotes and do not affect viruses or eukaryotic cells.
Apoptosis: Programmed cell death, which prevents the proliferation of cells with abnormal DNA.
Atherosclerosis: A thickening and hardening of the arteries, which reduces the arterial lumen and increases blood pressure. It is caused by aging and the accumulation of cholesterol and is associated with hypertension, angina pectoris, myocardial infarction, and stroke.
Autograft: A transplanted organ or tissue from the same patient.
Convalescence: The time it takes for the body to recover to its initial state after a disease.
Doha Declaration: States that intellectual property rights should not impair the right of members to protect public health, particularly promoting access to medicines for all.
Emerging Disease: A disease that was previously known but has increased in influence today.
Endemic Disease: A disease that appears in a particular region and persists for some time, affecting a significant number of people.
New Disease: A disease whose recent appearance is due to the emergence of new pathogens to humans, crossing the species barrier from animals.
Re-emerging Disease: A disease that was allegedly controlled but has become a threat to health again and may take the form of an epidemic.
Aging: An unchangeable biological factor that determines health.
Epidemic: Occurs when there is a high incidence of a disease in a large geographic area.
Personal Lifestyle: A set of good health habits that enriches life and reduces the risk of disease.
Etiology: The science that studies the causes of diseases.
EV (Life Expectancy): The average lifespan of individuals in a population born in a given year.
Evli (Healthy Life Expectancy): Life expectancy free of disability or years lived in good health.
Gene: A portion of the DNA chain.
Incubation: The time elapsed between the entry of a pathogen into the body and the first symptoms.
Inflammation: A natural defense characterized by swelling, heat, redness, and pain in the infected area.
Lymphocytes: A variety of leukocytes actively involved in the immune response.
Metastasis: The spread of a cancerous focus to a body part other than where it originated.
Mycoses: A disease caused by fungi, located anywhere in the body.
Pandemic: A disease that affects a large number of people in different continents.
Pathogenesis: The science that studies the mechanism of action of a disease.
Window Period: The time between infection and antibody production.
Prion: An infectious protein capable of self-reproduction, transforming a natural protein into a harmful form.
Chemotherapy: Involves administering anti-fungal drugs, which can also affect normal cells.
Radiotherapy: A process that destroys all rapidly dividing cells, including tumor cells, potentially damaging organs.
Health: A state of complete physical, social, and mental well-being, not merely the absence of disease.
Symptom: A disturbance that the patient feels and reports, which is subjective and must be intelligently evaluated for a correct diagnosis.
Serum: Antibodies injected into a patient, produced by another body that has previously encountered the pathogen.
Topical Treatment: Localized treatment applied directly to the skin or mucous membranes.
Vaccine: A preparation with antigenicity, with or without virulent activity, inoculated into an individual to trigger antibody formation.
Vector: An organism that carries a disease, in which a portion of the parasite’s life cycle develops.
Xenotransplant: A tissue or organ transplanted from another individual of another species.