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Medical Dictionary Terms Beginning with P
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Papilloma virus, human (HPV)
Papilloma virus, human (HPV): A family of over 60 viruses responsible forcausing warts. The majority of the viruses produce warts on the hands, fingers, and even the face. Most of these viruses are innocuous, causing nothing more than cosmetic concernsmore detail info...
Papilloma, cutaneous
Papilloma, cutaneous: A small tag of skin that may have a stalk (a peduncle). Cutaneous papillomas may appear on the skin almost anywhere although the favorite locales are the eyelids, neck, armpits (axillae), upper chest, and groin. Invariably benignmore detail info...
Papillomatosis
Papillomatosis: A disorder with numerous papillomas.more detail info...
Papillomatosis, laryngeal
Papillomatosis, laryngeal: Warty growths on the vocal cords. Most common in young children. Recurrences are, unfortunately, frequent. Remission may occur after several years. Papillomatosis of the larynx can be due to the baby contracting human papillomore detail info...
Papule
Papule: A small solid rounded elevation from the skin.more detail info...
Para-
Para-: A prefix with many meanings, including: alongside of, beside, near, resembling, beyond, apart from, and abnormal. For example, the parathyroid glands are adjacent to the thyroid, paraumbilical is alongside the umbilicus (the belly button)more detail info...
Paracentric chromosome inversion
Paracentric chromosome inversion: A basic type of chromosome rearrangement.A segment that does not include the centromere (and so is paracentric) has been snipped out of a chromosome, turned through 180 degrees (inverted), and inserted right backmore detail info...
Paradoxical embolism
Paradoxical embolism: Passage of a clot (thrombus) from a vein to an artery. When clots in veins break off (embolize) , they travel first to the right side of the heart and, normally, then to the lungs where they lodge. The lungs act as a filter to premore detail info...
Paralysis
Paralysis: Loss of voluntary movement (motor function); may be partial (palsy) or total, such as in botulism.more detail info...
Paralysis, laryngeal nerve
Paralysis, laryngeal nerve: Paralysis of the recurrent laryngeal nerve, a branch of the vagus nerve (a long and important nerve that originates in the brainstem and runs down to the colon). After the recurrent laryngeal nerve leaves the vagus nerve, it gmore detail info...
Paralytic ileus
Paralytic ileus: Paralysis of the intestine. To be termed "paralytic ileus," the intestinal paralysis need not be complete, but it must be sufficient to prohibit the passage of food through the intestine and lead to intestinal blockage. Paralytmore detail info...
Paraneoplastic syndrome
Paraneoplastic syndrome: By definition, a paraneoplastic syndrome is not produced by the primary tumor or its metastases (or by compression, infection, nutritional deficiency or treatment of the tumor). A paraneoplastic syndrome is a group of signmore detail info...
Paraphilia
Paraphilia: Paraphilias are a variety of complex psychiatric disorders which are manifest as deviant sexual behavior. For example, in men the most common forms are pedophilia (sexual behavior toward children) and exhibitionism (exposing one’s bodymore detail info...
Paraphimosis
Paraphimosis: Paraphimosis occurs when the foreskin of the penis, once retracted, cannot return to its original location. The foreskin remains trapped behind the groove (of the coronal sulcus) between the shaft and the glans (the rounded head of the penismore detail info...
Paraphimosis
Paraphimosis: Paraphimosis occurs when the foreskin of the penis, once retracted, cannot return to its original location. The foreskin remains trapped behind the groove (of the coronal sulcus) between the shaft and the glans (the rounded head of the penismore detail info...
Paraquat lung
Paraquat lung: Paraquat, a weed killer, selectively accumulates in the lungs and is highly toxic. Once X-ray changes from paraquat are evident in the lungs, death is virtually certain.more detail info...
Parasite
Parasite: A plant or animal organism that lives in or on and takes its nourishment from another. Parasite diseases include infections due to protozoa, helminths, or arthropods. For examples: Malaria is caused by plasmodium, a protozoa (a single-cell ormore detail info...
Parasympathetic nervous system
Parasympathetic nervous system: A part of nervous system that serves to slow the heart rate, increase the intestinal and gland activity, and relax the sphincter muscles. The parasympathetic nervous system, together with the sympathetic nervous system (more detail info...
Parathormone
Parathormone: Hormone made by the parathyroid gland (behind the thyroid gland in the neck). Parathormone (pronounced para-thor-mone) is critical to calcium and phosphorus balance. Deficiency of parathormone results in abnormally low calcium in the bloomore detail info...
Parathyrin
Parathyrin: See Parathormone.more detail info...