Category: Pa-Pb

At different points along the dogs’ digestive tracts, the Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1848-1936) surgically created pockets (“Pavlov pouches”) from which he could obtain secretions, the aim being to study the physiology of the digestive tract. He did so from the salivary glands down to the stomach, liver and pancreas with considerable success and in 1904…

The right of patients to make decisions about their medical care without their health care provider trying to influence the decision. Patient autonomy does allow for health care providers to educate the patient but does not allow the health care provider to make the decision for the patient.

A person under health care. The person may be waiting for this care or may be receiving it or may have already received it. There is considerable lack of agreement about the precise meaning of the term “patient.” It is diversely defined as, for examples: From the Latin verb “patior” meaning “to suffer” both in…

A suffix derived from the Greek “pathos” meaning “suffering or disease” that serves as a suffix in many terms including myopathy (muscle disease), neuropathy (nerve disease), retinopathopathy (disease of the retina), sympathy (literally, suffering together), etc. The corresponding prefix is patho-, as in pathobiology and pathology.

Deranged function in an individual or an organ due to a disease. For example, a pathophysiologic alteration is a change in function as distinguished from a structural defect.

The study of disease. Pathology has been defined as “that branch of medicine which treats of the essential nature of disease.” The word “pathology” comes from the Greek words “pathos” meaning “disease” and “logos” meaning “a treatise” = a treatise of disease. The word “pathology” is sometimes misused to mean disease as, for example, “he didn’t find any pathology”…

A physician who identifies diseases and conditions by studying abnormal cells and ’tissues.

1. Indicative of or caused by disease, as in a pathologic fracture, pathologic tissue, or pathologic process. 2. Pertaining to pathology, the branch of medicine that studies disease and especially the essential nature of disease.

A sign or symptom that is so characteristic of a disease that it can be used to make a diagnosis. For example, Koplik spots in the mouth opposite the first and second upper molars are pathognomonic of measles.

Capable of causing disease. For example, pathogenic E. coli are Eschericia coli bacteria that can make a person ill.