Category: Ac-Ac

  • Accessibility of services

    The ability to get medical care and services when needed.

  • Access

    In general, a means of approaching something. In health care, the opportunity or right to receive health care. In dialysis, the point on the body where a needle or catheter is inserted to gain entry to the bloodstream.

  • Acceptable daily intake

    Estimate of the amount of a substance in food or drinking water, expressed on a body mass basis (usually mg/kg body weight), which can be ingested daily over a lifetime by humans without appreciable health risk. For calculation of the daily intake per person, a standard body mass of 60 kg is used. The acceptable…

  • Accelerated phase of leukemia

    Chronic myelogenous leukemia that is progressing. In this phase, the number of immature, abnormal white blood cells in the bone marrow and blood is higher than in the chronic phase, but not as high as in the blast phase.

  • ACC

    Adenoid cystic carcinoma.

  • Acathisia

    A movement disorder characterized by a feeling of inner restlessness and a compelling need to be in constant motion, as well as by actions such as rocking while standing or sitting, lifting the feet as if marching on the spot, and crossing and uncrossing the legs while sitting. People with akathisia are unable to sit or keep…

  • Acaricide

    An agent, usually a chemical, that kills mites. This class of pesticides is large and includes antibiotic acaricides, carbamate acaricides, formamidine acaricides, mite growth regulators, organophosphate acaricides, and many others. From the Latin acarus, a mite + -cide, to kill.

  • Acapnia

    Lower than normal level of carbon dioxide in the blood. The opposite of acapnia is hypercapnia.

  • Acanthosis nigricans

    A skin condition characterized by dark, thickened, velvety patches, especially in the folds of skin in the armpit, groin, and back of the neck. It can occur with endocrine diseases such as Cushing disease and diabetes mellitus, from tumors of the pituitary gland, underlying malignancies, certain drugs, and as a genetic disorder. It is most common in people who…

  • Acanthamoeba keratitis

    Infection of the cornea by acanthamoeba, a microscopic water-borne ameba. The disease tends to occur in people who wear contact lens. It can accompany a bacterial infection of the eye. Acanthamoeba keratitis can produce corneal ulceration and result in severe loss of vision and even blindness. Signs and symptoms are persistent redness and pain in the eye. Treatment is with multiple antibiotics, often…