Medications

Diabetes: Refers to diabetes mellitus or, less often, to diabetes insipidus. Diabetes mellitus and diabetes insipidus share the name "diabetes" because they are both conditions characterized by excessive urination (polyuria). The word "diabetes" is...

Diabesity - Medical

Diabesity: Diabetes caused by overweight or obesity. From diabetes + obesity. Synonymous with the usual form of type 2 diabetes. UCLA started a Diabesity Research Program in 1998. Last Editorial Review: 7/8/2004 Type 2 diabetes: See Diabete...

Dia- - Medical

Dia-: Prefix taken straight from the Greek meaning "through, throughout, completely" as in diachronic, diagnosis, dialysis, etc. Dia- should not be confused with the prefix di- which has a wholly different meaning.Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5...

Di- - Medical

Di-: Prefix taken directly from the Greek meaning twice or double or twofold, as in diacid, diamelia (absence of two limbs), diandry (double male genetic contribution) and digyny (double female genetic contribution); the drugs diazepam, dicyclomine (...

Di Bella cancer therapy - Medical

Di Bella cancer therapy: An alternative medicine cancer treatment program developed by Dr. Luigi Di Bella based on a drug cocktail containing a low dose of cyclophosphamide -- a chemotherapy drug -- plus other drugs and vitamins and given to mo...

DHT - Medical

DHT: Dihydrotestosterone.Last Editorial Review: 6/19/2004 Dihydrotestosterone: A byproduct of the male hormone testosterone. Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is considered to be the essential androgenic hormone. DHT is responsible for the formation of male...

DHRD - Medical

DHRD: Doyne honeycomb retinal dystrophy, an eye disease also known as malattia leventinese. See: Malattia leventinese. Last Editorial Review: 7/22/2004 Malattia leventinese: An hereditary form of macular degeneration that results in progressive and...

DHHS - Medical

DHHS: Acronym for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Also known as HHS. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has two types of operating divisions: the Human Services and the Public Health Service Operating Divisions. The P...

DHF (dengue hemorrhagic fever) - Medical

DHF (dengue hemorrhagic fever): A syndrome due to the dengue virus that tends to affect children under 10, causing abdominal pain, hemorrhage (bleeding) and circulatory collapse (shock). DHF starts abruptly with high continuous fever and head...

DHA - Medical

DHA: 1. Docosahexaenoic acid, an essential fatty acid, thought to be important to the development of infants, particularly as regards their eyes and brain. DHA is present in breast milk and has been added to some infant formulas. Postnatal DHA may im...

DGS - Medical

DGS: See: DiGeorge syndrome. Last Editorial Review: 8/23/2003 DiGeorge syndrome: A genetic disorder characterized by hypocalcemia, immunodeficiency, and congenital heart disease: Hypocalcemia (low calcium levels in the blood) due to hypop...

DFSP - Medical

DFSP: Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.Last Editorial Review: 9/29/2004 Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans: (DFSP) A type of skin tumor that begins as a hard nodule and grows slowly. DFSP is usually found in the dermis of the limbs or trunk of the bod...

Dextrose - Medical

Dextrose: Better known today as glucose, this sugar is the chief source of energy in the body. Glucose is chemically considered a simple sugar. It is the main sugar that the body manufactures. The body makes glucose from all three elements o...

Dextroposition of the heart - Medical

Dextroposition of the heart: The heart is displaced to the right (from its usual location in the left chest). There is no anatomic alteration in the heart itself, just in its location. Dextroposition occurs when the contents of the left side of th...

Dextroposition - Medical

Dextroposition: Move to the right.Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Dextromethorphan - Medical

Dextromethorphan: An oral cough suppressant available in the US without a prescription but which is sometimes abused as a recreational drug. Dextromethorphan (DXM) is chemically related to codeine and acts on the brain to suppress cough, but it does ...

Dextrocardia - Medical

Dextrocardia: The heart is reversed and is in the right side of the chest rather than in its normal location on the left. This is a true anatomic reversal. With dextrocardia, for example, the apex (tip) of the heart points to the right rather than...

Dextro- - Medical

Dextro-: Prefix derived from the Latin dexter meaning "on the right side." A molecule that shows dextrorotation is turning or twisting to the right. The opposition of dextro- is levo-. Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Dexfenfluramine - Medical

Dexfenfluramine: A weight loss drug, in a class of drugs called anorectics which decrease appetite. This drug, sold in the US under the brand name Redux, was withdrawn from the US market in 1997, and has since been withdrawn worldwide and is no lon...

DEXA - Medical

DEXA: Dual energy X-ray absorptometry. See: DXA. Last Editorial Review: 9/28/2003 DXA: Dual X-ray absorptometry. A technique for scanning bone and measuring bone mineral density (BMD). A DXA scanner is a large machine that produces 2 X-ray beams, e...

Device, medical - Medical

Device, medical: See: Medical device.Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM Medical device: 1. Broadly, any physical item used in medical treatment, from a cardiac pacemaker to a wheelchair. 2.In insurance terms, usually synonymous an as...

Device, assistive - Medical

Device, assistive: Any device that is designed, made, and/or adapted to assist a person to perform a particular task. For examples, canes, crutches, walkers, wheel chairs, and shower chairs are all assistive devices. Device, intrauterine contracep...

Deviation of the nasal septum - Medical

Deviation of the nasal septum: Failure of the nasal septum to be in the center where it is supposed to be. (The nasal septum is the wall inside the nose that runs down the middle dividing it into two sides.) Deviation of the nasal septum may be con...

Deviated septum - Medical

Deviated septum: A condition in which the nasal septum (the thin wall that separates the air passages on either side of the nose) is displaced to one or the other side of the face. A deviated septum most commonly arises after trauma or injury to th...

Developmental dyspraxia - Medical

Developmental dyspraxia: A pattern of delayed, uneven, or aberrant development of physical abilities during childhood development. The physical abilities affected may be gross or fine motor skills. Developmental dyspraxia may be seen alone or in ...

Developmental disorder, specific - Medical

Developmental disorder, specific: A disorder that selectively affects one area of development, sparing essentially all other areas of development. For example, dysgraphia is one type of specific developmental disorder. In dysgraphia there is in...

Developmental disorder - Medical

Developmental disorder: One of several disorders that interrupt normal development in childhood. They may affect a single area of development (specific developmental disorders) or several (pervasive developmental disorders). With early interv...

Developmental dislocation of the hip (DDH) - Medical

Developmental dislocation of the hip (DDH): The abnormal formation of the hip joint in which the ball at the top of the thighbone (the femoral head) is not stable within the socket (the acetabulum). The ligaments of the hip joint may also be loose an...

Developmental delay - Medical

Developmental delay: Behind schedule in reaching milestones of early childhood development. Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Development, Human, . . . (NICHD) - Medical

Development, Human, National Institute of Child Health and (NICHD): One of the US National Institutes of Health, NICHD is in a sense the NIH for kids in that it is concerned with child health. The mission of the NICHD is, in formal terms, to ...