Acetaminophen: A pain reliever and fever reducer. Brand name: Tylenol. The exact mechanism of action of acetaminophen is not known. Acetaminophen relieves pain by elevating the pain threshold (that is, by requiring a greater amount of pain to develop before it is felt by a person). Acetaminophen reduces fever through its action on the heat-regulating center (the "thermostat") of the brain. Generic is available.
Aerosol: 1. In general, a fine mist or spray which contains minute particles.
2. In medicine, a spray administered by a nebulizer and inhaled for treatment.
3. In medicine, a mist that causes disease as, for example, the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.
4. In the environment, particles emitted into the air naturally as in volcanic eruptions and through human action such as burning fossil fuel.
5. In the environment, the pressurized gas used to propel substances out of a container.
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Antibody: An immunoglobulin, a specialized immune protein , produced because of the introduction of an antigen into the body, and which possesses the remarkable ability to combine with the very antigen that triggered its production.
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Antigen: A substance that is capable of causing the production of an antibody .
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Attention: The ability to focus selectively on a selected stimulus, sustaining that focus and shifting it at will. The ability to concentrate.
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Blood: The familiar red fluid in the body that contains white and red blood cells, platelets, proteins, and other elements. The blood is transported throughout the body by the circulatory system. Blood functions in two directions: arterial and venous. Arterial blood is the means by which oxygen and nutrients are transported to tissues while venous blood is the means by which carbon dioxide and metabolic by-products are transported to the lungs and kidneys, respectively, for removal from the body.
Bronchiolitis: Inflammation of the bronchioles, the airways that extend beyond the bronchi and terminate in the alveoli. Bronchiolitis is due to viral infections such as parainfluenza, influenza , adenovirus and, especially, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
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Cardiac: Having to do with the heart.
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Childhood: (1) The time for a boy or girl from birth until he or she is an adult. (2) The more circumscribed period of time from infancy to the onset of puberty .
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Clinical: 1. Having to do with the examination and treatment of patients. 2. Applicable to patients. A laboratory test may be of clinical value (of use to patients).
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Cough: A rapid expulsion of air from the lungs typically in order to clear the lung airways of fluids, mucus, or material. Also called tussis.
Diagnosis: 1 The nature of a disease ; the identification of an illness. 2 A conclusion or decision reached by diagnosis. The diagnosis is rabies . 3 The identification of any problem. The diagnosis was a plugged IV.
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Disease: Illness or sickness often characterized by typical patient problems (symptoms) and physical findings (signs). Disruption sequence: The events that occur when a fetus that is developing normally is subjected to a destructive agent such as the rubella (German measles) virus.
Environment: The sum of the total of the elements, factors and conditions in the surroundings which may have an impact on the development , action or survival of an organism or group of organisms.
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Fever : Although a fever technically is any body temperature above the normal of 98.6 degrees F. (37 degrees C.), in practice a person is usually not considered to have a significant fever until the temperature is above 100.4 degrees F (38 degrees C.).
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Hospital: It may seem unnecessary to define a "hospital" since everyone knows the nature of a hospital. A hospital began as a charitable institution for the needy, aged, infirm, or young.
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Immune: Protected against infection. The Latin immunis means free, exempt.
Immunity: The condition of being immune. Immunity can be innate (for example, humans are innately immune to canine distemper) or conferred by a previous infection or immunization.
Immunodeficiency: Inability to mount a normal immune response. Immunodeficiency can be due to a genetic disease or acquired as in AIDS due to HIV.
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Infection: The growth of a parasitic organism within the body. (A parasitic organism is one that lives on or in another organism and draws its nourishment therefrom.) A person with an infection has another organism (a "germ") growing within him, drawing its nourishment from the person.
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Laboratory: A place for doing tests and research procedures and preparing chemicals, etc. Although "laboratory" looks very like the Latin "laboratorium" (a place to labor, a work place), the word "laboratory" came from the Latin "elaborare" (to work out, as a problem, and with great pains), as evidenced by the Old English spelling "elaboratory" designating "a place where learned effort was applied to the solution of scientific problems."
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Mechanical ventilation: Use of a machine called a ventilator or respirator to improve the exchange of air between the lungs and the atmosphere.
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Mouth: 1. The upper opening of the digestive tract, beginning with the lips and containing the teeth, gums, and tongue. Foodstuffs are broken down mechanically in the mouth by chewing and saliva is added as a lubricant. Saliva contains amylase, an enzyme that digests starch. 2. Any opening or aperture in the body. The mouth in both senses of the word is also called the os, the Latin word for an opening, or mouth. The o in os is pronounced as in hope. The genitive form of os is oris from which comes the word oral.
Mucous: Pertaining to mucus, a thick fluid produced by the lining of some tissues of the body.
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Nose: The external midline projection from the face.
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Oxygen: A colorless, odorless and tasteless gas that makes up about 20% of the air we breathe (and at least half the weight of the entire solid crust of the earth) and which combines with most of the other elements to form oxides. Oxygen is essential to human, animal and plant life.
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Pneumonia: Inflammation of one or both lungs with consolidation. Pneumonia is frequently but not always due to infection. The infection may be bacterial, viral, fungal or parasitic. Symptoms may include fever, chills, cough with sputum production, chest pain, and shortness of breath.
Pulmonary: Having to do with the lungs. (The word comes from the Latin pulmo for lung).
Respiratory: Having to do with respiration, the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. From the Latin re- (again) + spirare (to breathe) = to breathe again.
Respiratory syncytial virus: A virus that causes mild respiratory infections, colds, and coughs in adults, but can produce severe respiratory problems, including bronchitis and pneumonia in young children. Persons with compromised immune, cardiac or pulmonary systems are at high risk from respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
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RNA: Short for ribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid molecule similar to DNA but containing ribose rather than deoxyribose. RNA is formed upon a DNA template. There are several classes of RNA molecules.
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RNA virus: A virus in which the genetic material is RNA. The RNA may be either double- or single-stranded.
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RSV: Although several standard medical dictionaries indicate only that RSV stands for Rous sarcoma virus, RSV in clinical medicine is the abbreviation for respiratory syncytial virus. See: Respiratory syncytial virus.
Runny nose: Rhinorrhea is the medical term for this common problem. From the Greek words "rhinos" meaning "of the nose" and "rhoia" meaning "a flowing."
Serum: The clear liquid that can be separated from clotted blood. Serum differs from plasma, the liquid portion of normal unclotted blood containing the red and white cells and platelets. It is the clot that makes the difference between serum and plasma.
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Sneeze: 1. As a verb, to suddenly expel air through the nose and mouth by an involuntary contraction of the muscles of expiration. 2. As a noun, the act of sneezing.
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Therapy: The treatment of disease .
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Ventilation: The exchange of air between the lungs and the atmosphere so that oxygen can be exchanged for carbon dioxide in the alveoli (the tiny air sacs in the lungs).
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Viral: Of or pertaining to a virus. For example, "My daughter has a viral rash ."
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Virus: A microorganism smaller than a bacteria, which cannot grow or reproduce apart from a living cell. A virus invades living cells and uses their chemical machinery to keep itself alive and to replicate itself. It may reproduce with fidelity or with errors (mutations)-this ability to mutate is responsible for the ability of some viruses to change slightly in each infected person, making treatment more difficult.
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Wheezing: A whistling noise in the chest during breathing when the airways are narrowed or compressed.
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From the Doctors at MedicineNet.com  |
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- palivizumab-injection, Synagis Source:First DataBank, Inc.
- respiratory syncytial virus immune globulin, human (RSV-IGIV)-inj, Respigam Source:First DataBank, Inc.
- Chest X-ray - A chest x-ray is a radiology test that involves exposing the chest briefly to radiation to produce an image of the chest and the internal organs of the chest. chest x-ray can be used to define abnormalities of the lungs such as excessive fluid, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, cysts, and cancers. Source:MedicineNet
- Read 23 more Respiratory Syncytial Virus related articles ...
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