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Mar 11, 2009 23:29

Key
Green: is a medical procedure.
Orange is medicine.
Blue are diseases and conditions.
Purple is equipment.
Black is "other".


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▪ Immunocompromised: A number of conditions that prevent the immune system from responding to infection. As a result, even minor infections can quickly overwhelm the body, resulting in serious illness or death. One of the problems with treating an immunosuppressed patient is that the normal tests for infection often come back negative as the test is for antibodies, which are not produced by an immunosuppressed patient.

▪ Impotence: The inability of a man to achieve or maintain an erection whilst being impotent is the state of being sterile and therefore unable to conceive.

▪ Incontinence: The inability to voluntarily stop the flow of urine, resulting in unpredictable urination. It is normal in infants and becomes increasingly common with age. In the elderly, it is usually due to the inability to control the sphincter that surrounds the urethra. However, it can be a symptom of other diseases, including cancer of the prostate gland in men.

▪ Infantile Alexander's Disease: A slowly progressing and fatal neurodegenerative disease. It is a very rare disorder which results from a genetic mutation and mostly affects infants and children, causing developmental delay and changes in physical characteristics.

▪ Infarction: An internal blockage of a major artery, either from a clot or arterial plaque, which prevents blood from flowing to the affected part. The result of an infarction in the cardiac artery is a heart attack. The result of an infarction in the carotid artery is a stroke. However, infarctions can affect any artery in the body. The standard treatment for an infarction is blood thinners.

▪ Infection: The uncontrolled growth of a foreign living organism inside the human body. Infections can be caused by bacteria, a virus, or a parasite. The infection can occur in a discrete area (such as an abscess) or can be found throughout the body (as in sepsis). The body usually responds to any type of infection with a fever unless the patient is immunocompromised.

▪ Insulin: A hormone that is secreted by the pancreas in response to an increase of blood sugar. Insulin increases the ability of sugars to pass through cell walls into cells where it can be metabolized or converted to fat for storage. In some individuals, the pancreas are unable to produce enough insulin to allow the sugar to pass into cells to be metabolized. The sugar builds up in the blood leading to diabetes mellitus, which when untreated is inevitably fatal.

▪ Interferon: A pharmaceutical preparation of proteins found in the human body that work as part of the immune system to destroy viruses, cancer cells, and other infections. In the body, it is produced by most cells in response to the double-stranded RNA that is typical of most viruses. It has the effect of interfering with the duplication of viruses and alerting the immune system to the existence of the virus.

▪ Intubate: A medical procedure where the physician inserts a curved, hollow plastic tube down the patient's throat, past the vocal chords and into the top of the bronchial tubes. This allows air to bypass the throat and larynx and access the bronchial tubes directly. Although it is very invasive and risks vomitting resulting in aspiration(as the gag reflex will tend to be activated when something is put in the throat), it is less invasive than a tracheotomy. Intubation is common during surgery in order to ensure a clear flow of air during anesthesia. During this procedure sedatives and paralytics will be administered subduing the gag reflex.

Ipecac: Derived from the dried rhizome and roots of the ipecacuanha plant and is a well known emetic (substance used to induce vomiting).

By Letter

| A | | B | | C | | D | | E | | F | | G | | H | | I | | J | | K | | L | | M |
| N | | O | | P | | Q | | R | | S | | T | | U | | V | | W | | X | | Y | | Z |

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