Medications

Pharyngoesophageal diverticulum - Medical

Pharyngoesophageal diverticulum: See: Zenker diverticulum.Last Editorial Review: 2/22/2004 Zenker diverticulum: The most common type of outpouching in the esophagus, due to increased pressure causing the mucous membrane of the esophagus to hern...

Pharyngitis - Medical

Pharyngitis: Inflammation of the pharynx (the hollow tube in the back of the throat about 5 inches long that starts behind the nose and ends at the top of the trachea). Pharyngitis is popularly known as a sore throat. Most sore throats are viral and...

Pharyngeal - Medical

Pharyngeal: Having to do with the throat (pharynx).Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Pharmacy, compounding - Medical

Pharmacy, compounding: A facility that both makes and sells prescription drugs. A compounding pharmacy can often concoct drug formulas that are specially tailored to patients: for example, liquid versions of medications normally available onl...

Pharmacy benefit manager - Medical

Pharmacy benefit manager: A company under contract with managed care organizations, self-insured companies, and government programs to manage pharmacy network management, drug utilization review, outcomes management, and disease management. The aim i...

Pharmacy - Medical

Pharmacy: A location where prescription drugs are sold. A pharmacy is, by law, constantly supervised by a licensed pharmacist.Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Pharmacopoeia - Medical

Pharmacopoeia: An official authoritative listing of drugs. Aspirin has, for example, long been in the pharmacopoeia. By extension, a pharmacopoeia is a collection or stock of drugs.Last Editorial Review: 9/27/2001 7:36:00 PM...

Pharmacopeia - Medical

Pharmacopeia: Also spelled pharmacopoeia, an official authoritative listing of drugs. Aspirin has, for example, long been in the pharmacopeia. By extension, a pharmacopeia is a collection or stock of drugs. Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 ...

Pharmacology - Medical

Pharmacology: The study of drugs, their sources, their nature, and their properties. Pharmacology is the study of the body's reaction to drugs. It emerged as a major area in American medicine largely due to the efforts of John Jacob Abel (1857-...

Pharmacologist - Medical

Pharmacologist: A specialist in the study of medications and their effects on the body.Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Pharmacologic stress test - Medical

Pharmacologic stress test: There are a diversity of pharmacologic stress tests. Here this refers specifically to a pharmacologic cardiac stress test in which certain medications are administered that stimulate the heart to mimic the physiologic effe...

Pharmacogenomics - Medical

Pharmacogenomics: The study of how variations in the human genome affect the response to medications. The older term "pharmacogenetics" was created from the words "pharmacology" and "genetics" to indicate the intersection of pharmaceuticals and genet...

Pharmacogenetics - Medical

Pharmacogenetics: The merger of pharmacology and genetics into a field that pertains to the hereditary responses to drugs. For example, after the administration of a muscle relaxant drug, a patient may remain apneic for hours due to a genetically det...

Pharmaco-epidemiology - Medical

Pharmaco-epidemiology: The study of the use of drugs in society. The process of identifying and responding to safety issues about drugs. Pharmaco-epidemiology has been called pharmaco-vigilance. For example, the diabetes drug called Rezulin was fou...

Pharmacist - Medical

Pharmacist: A professional who fills prescriptions, and in the case of a compounding pharmacist, makes them. Pharmacists are familiar with medication ingredients, interactions, cautions, and hints. Pharmacists are thus trained to prepare and ...

Pharma food - Medical

Pharma food: A food product with a pharmacological additive meant to improve health, for example, to lower cholesterol. Last Editorial Review: 11/19/2004...

Phantom vision - Medical

Phantom vision: Seeing images after total loss of eyesight.Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM...

Phantom tooth - Medical

Phantom tooth: Persistent pain in the area from which a tooth has been extracted. Phantom tooth pain may last for months and can spread beyond the extraction site to other areas of the mouth. Last Editorial Review: 8/11/2003...

Phantom limb syndrome - Medical

Phantom limb syndrome: The perception of sensations, usually including pain, in an arm or leg after the limb has been amputated. The brain still gets messages from the nerves that originally carried impulses from the missing limb. Phantom limb syndro...

Phalanx - Medical

Phalanx: Anatomically, any one of the bones in the fingers or toes. (Plural: phalanges.) There are 3 phalanges (the proximal, middle, and distal phalanx) in most of the fingers and toes. However, the thumb and large toe have only two phalanges ...

Phalanges - Medical

Phalanges: The plural of phalanx. See: Phalanx.Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2011 5:27:15 PM Phalanx: Anatomically, any one of the bones in the fingers or toes. (Plural: phalanges.) There are 3 phalanges (the proximal, middle, and distal phalanx) i...

Phalangeal - Medical

Phalangeal: Pertaining to a phalanx (a bone in the finger or toe).Last Editorial Review: 6/7/2003 Phalanx: Anatomically, any one of the bones in the fingers or toes. (Plural: phalanges.) There are 3 phalanges (the proximal, middle, and distal pha...

Phagocytosis - Medical

Phagocytosis: The process by which a cell engulfs particles such as bacteria, other microorganisms, aged red blood cells, foreign matter, etc. The principal phagocytes (cells that can engage in phagocytosis) include the neutrophils and monocytes (typ...

Phagocyte - Medical

Phagocyte: A cell that can engulf particles such as bacteria, other microorganisms, aged red blood cells, foreign matter, etc. The principal phagocytes include the neutrophils and monocytes (types of white blood cells). The prefix "phago-" comes fro...

Phago- - Medical

Phago- (prefix): Eating, devouring. From the Greek "phago" meaning "to eat." Examples of words starting with phago- include: phagocyte, a cell that can engulf particles; and phagophobia, an excessive fear of eating. Last Editorial Review: 7/16/200...

Phagedenic gingivitis - Medical

Phagedenic gingivitis: This is trench mouth, a progressive painful infection with ulceration, swelling and sloughing off of dead tissue from the mouth and throat due to the spread of infection from the gums. Certain germs (including fusiform...

Phage - Medical

Phage: Short for bacteriophage, a virus that lives within a bacteria. A virus for which the natural host is a bacterial cell. Bacteriophages have been very important and heuristic in bacterial and molecular genetics. Phages were studied by (amo...

Phacoemulsification - Medical

Phacoemulsification: A procedure in which the lens clouded by a cataract is broken up by ultrasound, irrigated, and suctioned out. Most cataract surgery today is performed using phacoemulsification. Before the advent of this technique, people with ca...

Ph.D. - Medical

Ph.D.: Doctor of Philosophy. (From the New Latin, philosophiae doctor). Ph.D.'s are involved in clinical care (as in clinical psychology), biomedical research (as in the Genome Project), health administration and other areas in medicine.Last Editor...

pH, urine - Medical

pH, urine: See: Urine pH.Last Editorial Review: 5/22/2004 Urine pH: A measure of the acidity or alkalinity of urine. The pH of any fluid is the measure of the hydrogen ion (H-) concentration. A pH of 7 is neutral. The lower the pH, the more acidic ...