Category: La-Lh

A benign tumor of smooth muscle, the type of muscle that is found in the heart and uterus. A leiomyoma of the uterus is commonly called a fibroid. Uterine fibroids are the single most common indication for hysterectomy. Fibroids can be present and be inapparent. However, they are clinically apparent in up to 25% of women and may cause significant morbidity, including…

The branch of medicine that deals with the application of medical knowledge to legal problems and legal proceedings. Legal medicine is also called forensic medicine. A physician may be engaged in legal (or forensic) medicine while a lawyer with identical interests is said to be in medical jurisprudence. It just depends upon the direction you are coming from.

An aching, crampy, tired, and sometimes burning pain in the legs that comes and goes — it typically occurs with walking and goes away with rest — due to poor circulation of blood in the arteries of the legs. Known medically as intermittent claudication. Intermittent claudication may occur in one or both legs and may worsen over time. However, some…

In popular usage, the part of the body from the top of the thigh down to the foot, and in medical terminology, the portion of the lower extremity that runs from the knee to the ankle. The leg (in the medical sense) has two bones’the tibia (shinbone) and the fibula’both of which are known as long bones.…

The preferential use of the left hand for most fine manual tasks. Approximately 10% of the population is left-handed. In French, the word for left is gauche meaning clumsy or awkward and the word for right is droit. In Latin the word for left is sinister and that for right is dexter (as in dexterity), as…

The upper right chamber of the heart. The left atrium receives oxygenated blood from the lungs and pumps it down into the left ventricle which delivers it to the body.

A molecule that is a combination of lipid (fat) and protein. Lipoproteins are the form in which lipids are transported in the blood. Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) transports cholesterol from the liver to the tissues of the body. LDL cholesterol is therefore considered the “bad” cholesterol.

Abbreviation for pound (for the Latin libra), a measure of weight.

An eye that diverges in gaze. A lazy eye is formally called strabismus. A lazy eye (strabismus) can be due to esotropia (cross-eyed) or to exotropia (wall-eyed). The danger of the condition is that the brain comes in time to rely more on one eye than the other and that part of the brain circuitry connected to…

In alternative medicine, an ancient method of healing by touching a person with the hands or palms, usually on the head, shoulders, or waist. Also called contact healing.