Category: Pa-Pb

Thick. As in pachydactyly (thick fingers), pachydermatous (thick fingers) and pachyonychia (thick nails). From the Greek pachys, thick.

A system that sends electrical impulses to the heart in order to set the heart rhythm. The pacemaker can be the normal “natural” pacemaker of the heart or it can be an electronic device. The natural pacemaker of the heart is the sinus node, one of the major elements in the cardiac conduction system, the system that controls…

An?X-ray?picture in which the beams pass from back-to-front (posteroanterior). As opposed to an AP (anteroposterior) image in which the rays pass through the body from front-to-back

A physician assistant (PA) is a mid-level medical practitioner who works under the supervision of a licensed doctor (an MD) or osteopathic physician (a DO). The physician assistant came about in the 1960s as a response to the need for more clinicians The first PA program was developed by Dr. Eugene Stead, chairman of the Department of…

Abbreviation meaning “when necessary” (from the Latin “pro re nata”, for an occasion that has arisen, as circumstances require, as needed).

Abbreviation meaning by mouth, orally (from the Latin “per os”, by mouth).

Abbreviation meaning after meals (from the Latin “post cibum”, after meals).

The short arm of a chromosome. The “p” comes from the French “petit” meaning small. All human chromosomes have 2 arms – the p (short) arm and the q (long) arm – that are separated from each other only by a primary constriction, the centromere, the point at which the chromosome is attached to the spindle…