Category: Ac-Ac

An acute illness caused by a dose greater than 50 rads of penetrating radiation to most or all of the body in a short time, usually a matter of minutes. Examples of persons who suffered from acute radiation syndrome (ARS) are the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs and the firefighters that first…

Commonly called APL, a malignancy of the bone marrow in which there is a deficiency of mature blood cells in the myeloid line of cells and an excess of immature cells called promyelocytes. APL is due to a translocation (an exchange of chromosome material) between chromosomes 15 and 17 which is symbolized t(15;17). This translocation is not…

A protein whose plasma concentrations increase during certain inflammatory disorders. Perhaps the best-known acute-phase protein is C-reactive protein (CRP).

A protein whose plasma concentrations increase during certain inflammatory disorders. Perhaps the best-known acute-phase protein is C-reactive protein (CRP).

Sudden inflammation of the pancreas. The pancreas abruptly becomes inflamed and then gets better. Some people have more than one attack but recover fully after each one. The cause of acute pancreatitis is most often alcohol abuse or gallstones. Other causes include use of prescribed drugs, trauma or surgery to the abdomen, or abnormalities of the pancreas or intestine. In rare cases, the…

Pain that comes on quickly, can be severe, but lasts a relatively shorter period of time. As opposed to chronic pain.

Inflammation of the middle ear in which there is fluid in the middle ear accompanied by signs or symptoms of ear infection: a bulging eardrum usually accompanied by pain; or a perforated eardrum, often with drainage of purulent material (pus). Acute otitis media is the most frequent diagnosis in sick children in the U.S., especially affecting infants and…

Abbreviated ANLL. More commonly called acute myeloid leukemia (AML). A quickly progressive malignant disease in which there are too many immature blood-forming cells in the blood and bone marrow, the cells being specifically those destined to give rise to the granulocytes or monocytes, both types of white blood cells that fight infections. In AML, these blasts do not mature…

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 bacteria and spirochetes) have been thought to be involved, but the full story behind this long-known disease is still not…

A heart attack. The term “myocardial infarction” focuses on the heart muscle, which is called the myocardium,and the changes that occur in it due to the sudden deprivation of circulating blood. This is usually caused by arteriosclerosis with narrowing of the coronary arteries, the culminating event being a thrombosis (clot). The main change is death (necrosis) of myocardial tissue. The word…