You are hereNews aggregator / categories / Kids News
Kids News
Beau's lines
Term Of The Day - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 12:00am
Beau's lines: Transverse lines or grooves across the fingernails; transverse depressions in the nail plate. Beau's lines are caused by temporary cessation of cell division in the proximal nail matrix. The condition may be caused by local disease of the nail fold, physical trauma to it, or a systemic insult, such as an illness or a drug as, for example, chemotherapy. Named for the distinguished French physician Joseph Honore Simon Beau (1806-1865) who described this phenomenon in 1846.
Also known as Beau-Reil cross furrows. Johann Christian Reil (1759-1813), German anatomist, physiologist, and physician for the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, described the same lines across the nails in 1796, a half century before Beau.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Fear of loneliness
Term Of The Day - Thu, 03/11/2010 - 12:00am
Fear of loneliness: An abnormal and persistent fear of loneliness, of being alone. Sufferers of this fear experience undue anxiety even though they realize that being alone does not threaten their well-being. They may worry about being ignored and unloved, or they may worry about intruders, strange noises or the possibility of developing a medical problem.
Fear of loneliness is termed "autophobia," a word derived from two Greek words: "autos" (self) and "phobos" (fear). "Autos" has given us many English words such as "automatic" and "automotive" (self-moving) and "autonomy" (self-governing). And "phobos" has bequeathed us a vast number of phobias such as "claustrophobia" (fear of closed places) and "acrophobia" (fear of heights).
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Syndrome, nail-patella
Term Of The Day - Wed, 03/10/2010 - 12:00am
Syndrome, nail-patella: See Nail-patella syndrome.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Recreational water illness
Term Of The Day - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 12:00am
Recreational water illness: An illness that is spread by swallowing, breathing, or having contact with contaminated water from swimming pools, spas, hot tubs, decorative water fountains, lakes, rivers, or oceans. Recreational water illnesses (RWIs) can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including skin, ear, respiratory, eye, and wound infections. The most commonly reported RWI is diarrhea. Diarrheal RWIs can be caused by germs such as Crypto (short for Cryptosporidium), Giardia, Shigella, and E. coli O157:H7.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Lemierre syndrome
Term Of The Day - Mon, 03/08/2010 - 12:00am
Lemierre syndrome: A potentially lethal form of sore throat caused by the bacterium Fusobacterium necrophorum, a common inhabitant of the mouth. This disease vanished with the advent of antibiotics but then returned decades later. It has been called the "forgotten disease."
Lemierre syndrome develops most often after a strep sore throat has created a peritonsillar abscess, a crater filled with pus and bacteria near the tonsils. Deep in the abscess, anaerobic bacteria (microbes that do not require oxygen) like Fusobacterium necrophorum can flourish. The bacteria penetrate from the abscess into the neighboring jugular vein in the neck and there they cause an infected clot (thrombosis) to form, from which bacteria are seeded throughout the body by the bloodstream (bacteremia). Pieces of the infected clot break off and travel to the lungs as emboli blocking branches of the pulmonary artery bringing the heart's blood to the lungs. This causes shortness of breath, chest pain and severe pneumonia.
The keys to survival with Lemierre syndrome are prompt recognition of the disease, immediate use of antibiotics (to which the bacterium is responsive), and drainage of abscesses. Even with prompt appropriate therapy, the mortality (death) rate is 4 to 12%.
The syndrome was first described by A. Lemierre in the Englih medical journal The Lancet in 1936.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Secondary atelectasis
Term Of The Day - Sun, 03/07/2010 - 12:00am
Secondary atelectasis: Partial or total collapse of a lung or a segment of a lung that was once expanded, as may happen after chest surgery. Secondary atelectasis is in contrast to primary atelectasis in which there is failure of the lung to expand fully at birth.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Diverticula
Term Of The Day - Sat, 03/06/2010 - 12:00am
Diverticula: The plural of diverticulum. As a person ages, pressure within the large intestine (colon) causes pockets of tissue (sacs) that push out from the colon walls. A small bulging sac pushing outward from the colon wall is a diverticulum. Diverticula can occur throughout the colon but are most common near the end of the left side of the colon, the sigmoid colon.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Diverticula
Term Of The Day - Sat, 03/06/2010 - 12:00am
Diverticula: The plural of diverticulum. As a person ages, pressure within the large intestine (colon) causes pockets of tissue (sacs) that push out from the colon walls. A small bulging sac pushing outward from the colon wall is a diverticulum. Diverticula can occur throughout the colon but are most common near the end of the left side of the colon, the sigmoid colon.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Cachectic
Term Of The Day - Fri, 03/05/2010 - 12:00am
Cachectic: Having cachexia, physical wasting with loss of weight and muscle mass due to disease. Patients with advanced cancer, AIDS, and some other major chronic progressive diseases may appear cachectic.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Extremely low birth weight (ELBW) baby
Term Of The Day - Thu, 03/04/2010 - 12:00am
Extremely low birth weight baby: A baby born very prematurely weighing between 401 and 1000 grams (about 14 to 35 ounces) at birth. Extremely low birth weight (ELBW) babies are at the lower limits of viability.
If ELBW babies survive, they are at elevated risk for neurological abnormalities, hearing and visual impairment, and developmental delay in infancy. The lower a baby's weight at birth, the more likely the child is to be subject to such problems.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Tick typhus
Term Of The Day - Wed, 03/03/2010 - 12:00am
Tick typhus: Also known as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, an acute febrile (feverish) disease initially recognized in the Rocky Mountain states, caused by Rickettsia rickettsii transmitted by hard-shelled (ixodid) ticks. Occurs only in the Western Hemisphere. Anyone frequenting tick-infested areas is at risk for RMSF.
The onset of symptoms is abrupt with headache, high fever, chills, muscle pain. and then a rash. The rickettsiae grow within damaged cells lining blood vessels which may become blocked by clots. Blood vessel inflammation (vasculitis) is widespread.
Early recognition of RMSF and prompt antibiotic treatment is important in reducing mortality.
The first person to describe the disease was an ear, nose and throat specialist, Edward Ernest Maxey. Maxey reported the disease in 1899. Seven years later, a pathologist named Howard Taylor Ricketts showed that it was transmitted by a tick bite. The agent that causes the disease was named for him -- Rickettsia rickettsii.
Rocky Mountain spotted fever is also called spotted fever and tick fever.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Teres minor muscle
Term Of The Day - Tue, 03/02/2010 - 12:00am
Teres minor muscle: A muscle that assists the lifting of the arm during outward turning (external rotation) of the arm.
The tendon of the teres minor muscle is one of four tendons that stabilize the shoulder joint and constitute the rotator cuff. Each of these four tendons hooks up to a muscle that the shoulder in a specific direction. The four muscles whose tendons form the rotator cuff are:
- The teres minor muscle;
- The infraspinatus muscle, which (like the teres minor) helps in the outward turning (external rotation) of the arm.
- The supraspinatus muscle which is responsible for elevating the arm and moving it away from the body; and
- The subscapularis muscle, which moves the arm by turning it inward (internal rotation).
Damage to the rotator cuff is one of the most common causes of shoulder pain.
The term "teres" means "smooth and round" or "cylindrical" in Latin. The teres minor muscle was given that name because it was round and smaller than another round muscle which naturally came to be known as the teres major muscle. In anatomy, wherever there is a minor, there is a major.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
A Wonderful Case Study - High School As It Ought To Be
Global Literacy Foundation - Mon, 03/01/2010 - 9:41am
Here's a great example of passion and projects overcoming inertia...
Excerpt from: http://theenergyproject.com/blog/2009/12/high-school-way-it-ought-be
" HIGH SCHOOL THE WAY IT OUGHT TO BE
By Tony Schwartz, CEO, The Energy Project on Dec 01, 2009How much more focused and engaged would high school students be if they were given an opportunity to pursue their passions – topics that truly sparked their interest and excitement?
A year ago, we helped launch an experiment with 9th graders at the Riverdale Country School, a small independent school in the Bronx. A year earlier, a new head of school had been hired and he brought to his role a series of ideas about education that ought to be commonplace but are all too rare. Among them:
Categories: Kids News
Marburg disease
Term Of The Day - Mon, 03/01/2010 - 12:00am
Marburg disease: A severe form of hemorrhagic fever which affects both humans and non-human primates. Caused by a genetically unique zoonotic (that is, animal-borne) RNA virus of the filovirus family, its recognition led to the creation of this virus family. The four species of Ebola virus are the only other known members of the filovirus family.
Marburg virus was first recognized in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). A total of 37 people became ill; they included laboratory workers as well as several medical personnel and family members who had cared for them. The first people infected had been exposed to African green monkeys or their tissues. In Marburg, the monkeys had been imported for research and to prepare polio vaccine.
Recorded cases of the disease have appeared in only a few locations. While the 1967 outbreak occurred in Europe, the disease agent had arrived with imported monkeys from Uganda. No other case was recorded until 1975, when a traveler most likely exposed in Zimbabwe became ill in Johannesburg, South Africa - and passed the virus to his travelling companion and a nurse. 1980 saw two other cases, one in Western Kenya not far from the Ugandan source of the monkeys implicated in the 1967 outbreak. This patient's attending physician in Nairobi became the second case. Another human Marburg infection was recognized in 1987 when a young man who had traveled extensively in Kenya, including western Kenya, became ill and later died.
Marburg virus is indigenous to Africa. While the geographic area to which it is native is unknown, this area appears to include at least parts of Uganda and Western Kenya, and perhaps Zimbabwe. As with Ebola virus, the actual animal host for Marburg virus also remains a mystery. Both of the men infected in 1980 in western Kenya had traveled extensively, including making a visit to a cave, in that region. The cave was investigated by placing sentinels animals inside to see if they would become infected, and by taking samples from numerous animals and arthropods trapped during the investigation. The investigation yielded no virus: The sentinel animals remained healthy and no virus isolations from the samples obtained have been reported.
Just how the animal host first transmits Marburg virus to humans is unknown. However, as with some other viruses which cause viral hemorrhagic fever, humans who become ill with Marburg hemorrhagic fever may spread the virus to other people. This may happen in several ways. Persons handling infected monkeys who come into direct contact with them or their fluids or cell cultures, have become infected. Spread of the virus between humans has occurred in a setting of close contact, often in a hospital. Droplets of body fluids, or direct contact with persons, equipment, or other objects contaminated with infectious blood or tissues are all highly suspect as sources of disease.
After an incubation period of 5-10 days, the onset of the disease is sudden and is marked by fever, chills, headache, and myalgia. Around the fifth day after the onset of symptoms, a maculopapular rash, most prominent on the trunk (chest, back, stomach), may occur. Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, a sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea then may appear. Symptoms become increasingly severe and may include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction.
Because many of the signs and symptoms of Marburg hemorrhagic fever are similar to those of other infectious diseases, such as malaria or typhoid fever, diagnosis of the disease can be difficult, especially if only a single case is involved. Laboratory tests including antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing, IgM-capture ELISA, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and virus isolation, can be used to confirm a case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever within a few days of the onset of symptoms. The disease is also readily diagnosed by immunohistochemistry, virus isolation, or PCR of blood or tissue specimens from deceased patients.
Recovery from Marburg hemorrhagic fever may be prolonged and accompanied by prolonged hepatitis and transverse myelitis. Other possible complications include inflammation of the testis, spinal cord, eye, and parotid gland. The case-fatality rate for Marburg hemorrhagic fever is between 23-25%.
Specific treatment for this disease is unknown. However, supportive hospital therapy includes balancing the patient's fluids and electrolytes, maintaining their oxygen status and blood pressure, replacing lost blood and clotting factors and treating them for any complicating infections. Sometimes treatment also has used transfusion of fresh-frozen plasma and other preparations to replace the blood proteins important in clotting.
People who have close contact with a human or non-human primate infected with the virus are at risk. Such persons include laboratory or quarantine facility workers who handle non-human primates that have been associated with the disease. In addition, hospital staff and family members who care for patients with the disease are at risk if they do not use proper barrier nursing techniques. These precautions include wearing protective gowns, gloves, and masks; placing the infected individual in strict isolation; and sterilization or proper disposal of needles, equipment, and patient excretions.
Bioterrorism -- There has been concern about Marburg virus as a possible weapon for bioterrorism. However, the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of the US Congress, in a 1999 report considered Marburg virus to be an "unlikely" biologic threat for terrorism, because the virus is very difficult to obtain and process, unsafe to handle, and relatively unstable.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Familial cylindromatosis
Term Of The Day - Sun, 02/28/2010 - 12:00am
Familial cylindromatosis: A genetic syndrome in which numerous benign tumors of skin adnexa (such as the sweat glands) develop, principally on the head and neck. This disorder is inherited in an autosomal manner and is caused by mutation of the CYLD gene on chromosome 16q12-q13. Mutation of CYLD has been likened to having faulty brakes on a car. Instead of a pileup of cars, a pileup of cells results. Topical application of aspirin, another type of brake on cell proliferation, may possibly be useful. Also called the turban tumor syndrome.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Progressive vaccinia
Term Of The Day - Sat, 02/27/2010 - 12:00am
Progressive vaccinia: A severe complication of smallpox vaccination that occurs because of an immune defect in the vaccinated individual or in a susceptible contact of that person. In progressive vaccinia, the primary vaccination site does not heal but rather expands with extensive necrosis (death of tissue), eventually covering large portions of body with extensive destruction of normal tissue. If allowed to progress, the patient may experience dire complications including toxic or septicemic shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation, superimposed infection, and bacteremia or septicemia. They may die. Aggressive use of vaccinia immune globulin (VIG) is the mainstay of treatment.
Progressive vaccinia has sometimes been termed vaccinia necrosum, vaccinia gangrenosa, or disseminated vaccinia.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Fenfluramine
Term Of The Day - Fri, 02/26/2010 - 12:00am
Fenfluramine: A weight loss drug, in a class of drugs called anorectics which decrease appetite. This drug, sold in the US under the brand name Pondimin, was withdrawn from the US market in 1997, and has since been withdrawn worldwide and is no longer available because of its association with abnormal heart valve findings, primarily aortic regurgitation.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Immunotoxin
Term Of The Day - Thu, 02/25/2010 - 12:00am
Immunotoxin: A hybrid molecule created by coupling an antibody or antigen with part or all of a toxin. The hybrid molecule combines the specificity of the antibody or antigen with the toxicity of the toxin. The possible targets of immunotoxins include cancer cells and cells containing HIV. The term "immunotoxin" has come into media usage as, for example, in: "Then we come in with the immunotoxin,' he said. It is a molecule-size smidgen of bacterial poison attached to an antibody that gloms onto the T cell and injects the toxin." (Trying to Kill AIDS Virus by Luring It Out of Hiding, New York Times, Sept 23, 2003).
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Laryngoscopy
Term Of The Day - Wed, 02/24/2010 - 12:00am
Laryngoscopy: Examination of the larynx with a mirror (indirect laryngoscopy) or with a laryngoscope (direct laryngoscopy).
The laryngoscope is a flexible, lighted tube used to look at the inside of the larynx (the voice box). The laryngoscope is inserted through the mouth into the upper airway.
History: The laryngoscope was invented in 1830 by Benjamin Guy Babington, a British physician who also first described the disease now called hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia and who made considerable contributions to epidemiology. (Babington in 1837 was appointed as physician to Guy's Hospital in London in preference to Thomas Hodgkin whose name is today associated with Hodgkin disease).
Etymology: The word "laryngoscope" was compounded from "laryngo-" + the Greek "skopeo," to inspect = to inspect the larynx. The word "larynx" is a direct borrowing from the Greek for the upper part of the airway.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
Blue cohosh
Term Of The Day - Mon, 02/22/2010 - 12:00am
Blue cohosh: (Caulophyllum thalictroides). A tall North American perennial plant with large blue berries. Blue cohosh is sold as an herbal dietary supplement that can induce labor. Blue cohosh contains the glycosides caulosaponin and caulophyllosaponin, which cause uterine contraction and constriction of the coronary arteries in experimental animals. There is considerable concern about the medical safety of blue cohosh. Newborn babies have been reported who have had a heart attack or stroke after the mother took blue cohosh to induce labor.
Blue cohosh was an American Indian remedy. It was principally used by the squaws as an agent to facilitate childbirth. It was therefore known as squawroot or pappoose root. It is also called blueberry root.
MedTerms (TM) is the Medical Dictionary of MedicineNet.com.
We Bring Doctors' Knowledge To You
Categories: Kids News
