Medications

FAE (fetal alcohol effects): A softer diagnosis than fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). The diagnosis of possible FAE is considered when: 1. The person has some signs of FAS; 2. The person does not meet all of the necessary criteria for FAS; and 3. Ther...

Facultative heterochromatin - Medical

Facultative heterochromatin: Chromosome material that can be either heterochromatin or euchromatin. The inactive X chromosome is made up of facultative heterochromatin. When a woman transmits that X chromosome to a son, the chromosome reverts to t...

Facultative - Medical

Facultative: 1. In general, not obligatory but rather capable of adapting to different conditions. The opposite of facultative is obligate. 2. In bacteriology, bacteria that can grow under either aerobic or anaerobic circumstances (with or without...

Factor, rheumatoid - Medical

Factor, rheumatoid: See rheumatoid factor.Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM Medical Author: William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR ...

Factor, colony-stimulating - Medical

Factor, colony-stimulating: A laboratory-made agent similar to a normally existing substance in the body that stimulates the production of blood cells. The colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) include granulocyte colony-stimulating factors (G-CSF) and...

Factor X - Medical

Factor X: A coagulation factor, a substance in blood essential to the normal clotting process. Production of factor X takes place in the liver and requires vitamin K. The gene for factor X is located on chromosome 13 and is in band 13q34. The "X" i...

Factor VIII - Medical

Factor VIII: Factor eight, a key factor in the process of blood coagulation (clotting). Lack of normal factor VIII causes hemophilia (hemophilia A). The gene for classic hemophilia was long known to be on the X chromosome. Females carry the gene a...

Factor V Leiden - Medical

Factor V Leiden: A genetic disorder of blood coagulation (clotting) that carries an increased risk of venous thromboembolism -- the formation of clots in veins that may break loose and travel through the bloodstream to the lungs or brain. On the mole...

Factor V - Medical

Factor V: A coagulation factor needed for the normal clotting of blood. Also known as proaccelerin. Last Editorial Review: 10/29/2003...

Factitious disorder by proxy - Medical

Factitious disorder by proxy: See: Munchhausen syndrome by proxy. Last Editorial Review: 8/8/2004 Munchausen syndrome by proxy: A parenting disorder in which the parent either fabricates an illness or induces an illness in their child...

Factitious disease by proxy - Medical

Factitious disease by proxy: See: Munchhausen syndrome by proxy. Last Editorial Review: 8/8/2004 Munchausen syndrome by proxy: A parenting disorder in which the parent either fabricates an illness or induces an illness in their child. Munchause...

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy - Medical

Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy: A form of muscular dystrophy that typically begins before age 20 with slowly progressive weakness of the muscles of the face, shoulders, and feet. The severity of the disease is quite variable. Although...

Faciogenital dysplasia - Medical

Faciogenital dysplasia: See: Aarskog-Scott syndrome. Last Editorial Review: 6/7/2003 Aarskog-Scott syndrome: A syndrome of wide spaced eyes (ocular hypertelorism), front-facing (anteverted) nostrils, a broad upper lip, a malformed ("saddle-bag") sc...

Faciodigitogenital dysplasia - Medical

Faciodigitogenital dysplasia: See: Aarskog-Scott syndrome. Last Editorial Review: 6/7/2003 Aarskog-Scott syndrome: A syndrome of wide spaced eyes (ocular hypertelorism), front-facing (anteverted) nostrils, a broad upper lip, a malformed ("saddle...

Facioauriculovertebral sequence - Medical

Facioauriculovertebral sequence: See: Goldenhar syndrome. Last Editorial Review: 1/26/2004 Goldenhar syndrome: Congenital malformation of the jaw, cheek and ear associated with vertebral defects. There is deformity of the external ear and abnorma...

Facio-auriculo-vertebral spectrum - Medical

Facio-auriculo-vertebral spectrum: See: Goldenhar syndrome. Last Editorial Review: 1/26/2004 Goldenhar syndrome: Congenital malformation of the jaw, cheek and ear associated with vertebral defects. There is deformity of the external ear and abnor...

Facies - Medical

Facies: A direct borrowing from the Latin, facies means face. Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Facial nerve paralysis - Medical

Facial nerve paralysis: Loss of voluntary movement of the muscles on one side of the face due to abnormal function of the facial nerve (also known as the 7th cranial nerve) which supplies those muscles. Facial nerve paralysis is also called Bel...

Facial nerve - Medical

Facial nerve: The facial nerve is the seventh cranial nerve. It is a mixed nerve that has fibers both going out and coming in (both efferent and afferent fibers). It supplies the muscles of facial expression. Paralysis of the facial nerve caus...

Facial muscle - Medical

Facial muscle: One of the 43 muscles in the human face. The facial muscles convey basic human emotions such as anger, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust, contempt and happiness by very clear facial signals. Last Editorial Review: 8/8/2003...

Facial canal introitus - Medical

Facial canal introitus: In anatomy, an introitus is an entrance, one that goes into a canal or hollow organ. The introitus of the facial canal is the entrance to the facial canal, a passage in the temporal bone of the skull through which the facial...

Facelift surgery risks - Medical

Facelift surgery risks: Although infrequent, the risks and complications of facelift surgery include: bleeding, hematoma, bruising; infection; neurological dysfunction (loss of muscle function or sensation), which is usually temporary; widened or ...

Facelift - Medical

Facelift: A surgical procedure designed to make the face appear younger by pulling loose facial skin taut. With age or excessive sun exposure, wrinkled creased skin can develop on the face, neck or forehead along with fat deposits and folds around th...

Face, masklike - Medical

Face, masklike: An expressionless face with little or no sense of animation, a face more like a mask than a normal face. A masklike face is seen in a number of disorders including Parkinson's disease and myotonic dystrophy. Also called masklike ...

Fabry disease - Medical

Fabry disease: A genetic disease due to deficiency of the enzyme alpha-galactosidase A. This enzyme is essential to the metabolism of molecules known as glycosphingolipids. Without the enzyme, glycosphingolipids accumulate in the kidneys, heart, nerv...

Fabricated illness by proxy - Medical

Fabricated illness by proxy: See: Munchhausen syndrome by proxy. Last Editorial Review: 8/8/2004 Munchausen syndrome by proxy: A parenting disorder in which the parent either fabricates an illness or induces an illness in their child. Munchause...

F (symbol) - Medical

F (symbol): A much used symbol, F stands for fractional concentration; free energy; Fahrenheit; visual field; fluorine; force; filial generation, followed by subscript numerals indicating specified matings such as F1); the amino acid phenylalanine; t...

F (coefficient of inbreeding) - Medical

F (coefficient of inbreeding): F is the symbol for the coefficient of inbreeding, a way of gauging how close two people are genetically to one another. The coefficient of inbreeding, F, is the probability that a person with two identical genes ...

Eyetooth - Medical

Eyetooth: An upper canine tooth which is immediately lateral to the second incisor. So-named in the mistaken belief that this tooth was connected to a branch of the nerve that supplies the eye. Last Editorial Review: 8/11/2003...

Eyes, spots in front of the - Medical

Eyes, spots in front of the: Also known as "floaters", blurry spots that drift in front of the eyes but do not block vision. The blur is the result of debris from the vitreous casting a shadow on the retina. The spot is the image formed by a deposit...