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Medical Dictionary Terms Beginning with R
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Reaction, hibernation
Reaction, hibernation: Depression that tends to occur (and recur) as the days grow shorter in the fall and winter. It is believed that affected persons react adversely to the decreasing amounts of light and the colder temperatures as the fall and wintermore detail info...
Reaction, polymerase chain (PCR)
Reaction, polymerase chain (PCR): A key technique in molecular genetics that permits the analysis of any short sequence of DNA (or RNA) without having to clone it. PCR is used to amplify selected sections of DNA, something that used to be donmore detail info...
Reaction, vasovagal
Reaction, vasovagal: A reflex of the involuntary nervous system called the vasovagal reaction. The vasovagal reaction leads the heart to slow down (bradycardia) and, at the same time, it effects the nerves to the blood vessels in the legs to permit thosemore detail info...
Reactive arthritis
Reactive arthritis: Reiter’s syndrome is also called &reactive arthritis& since it is thought to involve the immune system which is &reacting& to the presence of bacterial infections in the genital, urinary, or gastrointestinalmore detail info...
Reading frame
Reading frame: One of the three possible ways to read a nucleotide sequence in DNA (depending upon whether reading starts with the first, second or third base in a triplet).more detail info...
Reading frame, open
Reading frame, open: An open reading frame in DNA has no termination codon, no signal to stop reading the nucleotide sequence, and so may be translated into protein.more detail info...
Reagent
Reagent: A substance used to produce a chemical reaction to detect, measure, produce, etc. other substances.more detail info...
Rebound
Rebound: Just like a rebound in basketball when the ball reverses its course and bounces back off the backboard, in medicine a rebound is a reversal of response upon withdrawal of the stimulus.more detail info...
Rebound effect
Rebound effect: The characteristic of a drug to produce reverse effects when the effect of the drug has passed or the patient no longer responds to it.more detail info...
Recalcitrant
Recalcitrant: Stubborn. For example, a recalcitrant case of pneumonia stubbornly resists treatment.more detail info...
Recent memory
Recent memory: Short-term memory. Also called working memory. Recent memory is a system for temporarily storing and managing the information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. Recent memory is imore detail info...
Receptor
Receptor: In cell biology, a receptor is a structure on the surface of a cell or inside a cell that selectively receives and binds a specific substance. There are, for example, insulin receptors, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptors, etc. However, imore detail info...
Receptor, chemokine
Receptor, chemokine: A molecule that receives a chemokine and acts as a dock for a chemokine . Several chemokine receptors are essential co-receptors for HIV.more detail info...
Receptor, visual
Receptor, visual: The layer of rods and cones, the visual cells, of the retina.more detail info...
Recessive
Recessive: A recessive gene expresses itself only when there is no other type of gene present at that locus (spot on the genetic code or chromosome). For example, cystic fibrosis (CF) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are both recessive disorders.more detail info...
Recessive, autosomal
Recessive, autosomal: A gene on a nonsex chromosome (an autosome) that expresses itself only when there is no different gene present at that locus (spot on the chromosome). For example, cystic fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disorder. A CF chilmore detail info...
Recessive, X-linked
Recessive, X-linked: A gene on the X chromosome that expresses itself only when there is no different gene present at that locus (spot on the chromosome). For example, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an X-linked recessive disorder. A DMD boy has tmore detail info...
Recipient
Recipient: In medicine, a recipient is someone who receives something like a blood transfusion or an organ transplant. The recipient is beholden to the donor.more detail info...
Reciprocal treanslocation
Reciprocal treanslocation: Mutual exchange of chromosome segments between two nonhomologous chromosomes (chromosomes that do not belong to the same pair).more detail info...
Recombinant
Recombinant: A person with a new combination of genes, a combination of genes not present in either parent, due to parental recombination of those genes.more detail info...