Medications

Qualm: 1. Sickness, disease, pestilence, or death. As in "A thousand slain and not of qualm ystorve [not dead of sickness]" (Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales) 2. A sudden sick feeling. As in "A qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadl...

Quality of life - Medical

Quality of life: An important consideration in medical care, quality of life refers to the patient's ability to enjoy normal life activities. Some medical treatments can seriously impair quality of life without providing appreciable benefit, ...

Quality adjusted life year (QALY) - Medical

Quality adjusted life year (QALY): A year of life adjusted for its quality or its value. A year in perfect health is considered equal to 1.0 QALY. The value of a year in ill health would be discounted. For example, a year bedridden might have...

Qualitative - Medical

Qualitative: Having to do with quality. In contrast to quantitative (which pertains to quantity, the amount). Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Qualify - Medical

Qualify: In medicine, to finish training. One of the first women to receive a medical degree (albeit pretending to be a man), James Miranda Barry qualified in medicine at the University of Edinburgh in 1812. Last Editorial Review: 10/9/2004...

Qualified health claim - Medical

Qualified health claim: A claim authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that must be supported by credible scientific evidence regarding a relationship between a substance (specific food or food component) and a disease or health-...

Quadriplegic - Medical

Quadriplegic: Pertaining to quadriplegia (paralysis of all four limbs -- both arms and both legs), as from a high spinal cord accident.Last Editorial Review: 6/5/2004 Quadriplegia: Paralysis of all four limbs, both arms and both legs, as from a hig...

Quadriplegia - Medical

Quadriplegia: Paralysis of all four limbs, both arms and both legs, as from a high spinal cord accident or stroke. Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM Medical Author: Benjamin Wedro, MD, FACEP, FAA...

Quadriparesis - Medical

Quadriparesis: Weakness of all four limbs, both arms and both legs, as for example from muscular dystrophy. Last Editorial Review: 3/26/1998 2:28:00 PM...

Quadriceps stretch - Medical

Quadriceps stretch: An exercise to stretch the quadriceps muscle, the large muscle in the front of the thigh. To do this exercise, lie on your left side, on the floor. Your hips should be lined up so that the right one is directly above the lef...

Quadriceps reflex - Medical

Quadriceps reflex: See: Knee jerk. Last Editorial Review: 7/17/2004 Knee jerk: The reflex tested by tapping just below the knee causing the lower leg to suddenly jerk forward. What is tapped to elicit this reaction is the patellar tendon,...

Quadriceps - Medical

Quadriceps: Although the term "quadriceps" technically may refer to any four-headed muscle, it usually refers to and is synonymous with the quadriceps muscle of the thigh, the large muscle that comes down the femur (the bone of the upper leg), goes...

Quadrant - Medical

Quadrant: A quarter. For example, the liver is in the right upper quadrant of the abdomen. Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Quackery - Medical

Quackery: Deliberate misrepresentation of the ability of a substance or device for the prevention or treatment of disease. We may think that the day of patent medicines is gone but look around you and you will see them still. They appeal to our de...

Quack - Medical

Quack: 1) A practitioner who suggests the use of substances or devices for the prevention or treatment of disease that are known to be ineffective. 2) A person who pretends to be able to diagnose or heal people, but is unqualified and incompeten...

QT syndrome, long - Medical

QT syndrome, long: An inherited defect in the heart rhythm. In the US alone, it is estimated that 4,000 children and young adults die yearly of the long QT syndrome. It is a common cause of sudden death among school athletes, as well as the cause of ...

QRS complex - Medical

QRS complex: The deflections in the tracing of the electrocardiogram ( ECG or EKG), comprising the Q, R, and S waves, that represent the ventricular activity of the heart (the depolarization of the ventricles).Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15...

QNS - Medical

QNS: On a lab report, Quantity Not Sufficient. The sample is not large enough to do the test.Last Editorial Review: 11/14/2003...

Qinghaosu - Medical

Qinghaosu: A Chinese herb (also called sweet wormwood) from which is extracted the antimalarial agent artemisinin.Last Editorial Review: 5/10/2004 Antimalarial: A drug directed against malaria. The original antimalarial agent was quinine which took...

qid (on prescription) - Medical

qid (on prescription): Seen on a prescription, qid (or q.i.d.) means 4 times a day (from the Latin quater in die). The abbreviation qid or q.i.d. is also sometimes written without a period in capital letters as "QID". However it is w...

QHC - Medical

QHC: Qualified health claim.Last Editorial Review: 9/9/2004 Qualified health claim: A claim authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that must be supported by credible scientific evidence regarding a relationship between a substan...

qd (on prescription) - Medical

qd (on prescription): Seen on a prescription, qd (or, written with periods, q.d.) means one a day (from the Latin quaque die). The abbreviation is sometimes written without a period in capital letters as "QD". However it is written, it is one of ...

QALY - Medical

QALY: Quality adjusted life year, a year of life adjusted for its quality or its value. A year in perfect health is considered equal to 1.0 QALY. The value of a year in ill health would be discounted. For example, a year bedridden might have ...

q.s. - Medical

q.s.: On a prescription, as needed. Last Editorial Review: 11/30/1999 8:49:00 PM Prescription: A physician's order for the preparation and administration of a drug or device for a patient. A prescription has several parts. They include the su...

q.n.s. - Medical

q.n.s.: On a lab report, q.n.s. (or qns or QNS) means Quantity Not Sufficient. Not enough blood, urine or whatever to do the test.Last Editorial Review: 3/26/1998 2:28:00 PM...

q.i.d. (on prescription) - Medical

q.i.d. (on prescription): Seen on a prescription, q.i.d. (or qid) means 4 times a day (from the Latin quater in die). The abbreviation q.i.d. is also sometimes written without a period in capital letters as "QID". However it is written, it is one...

q.h. (on prescription) - Medical

q.h. (on prescription): Abbreviation for "every hour." On a prescription or doctor's hospital orders, q.h. means every hour. Also written qh (without the periods). From the Latin quaque meaning once + h for hour. However it is written, it is ...

q.d. (on prescription) - Medical

q.d. (on prescription): Seen on a prescription, q.d. (or qd) means one a day (from the Latin quaque die). The abbreviation is sometimes written without a period in capital letters as "QD". However it is written, it is one of a number of hallowe...