Category: Ph-Pl

In pharmacy, a medicinal substance in a small round or oval mass meant to be swallowed. Pills often contain a filler and a plastic substance such as lactose that permits the pill to be rolled by hand or machine into the desired form. The pill may then be coated with a varnishlike substance. The word pill is…

The coloring of the skin, hair, mucous membranes, and retina of the eye. Pigmentation is due to the deposition of the pigment melanin, which is produced by specialized cells called melanocytes. Other pigment-related terms include hyperpigmentation (too much pigment), hypopigmentation and underpigmentation (too little pigment), and depigmentation (loss of pigment).

A craving for something that is not normally regarded as nutritive, such as dirt, clay, paper, or chalk. Pica is a classic clue to iron deficiency in children, and it may also occur with zinc deficiency. Pica is also seen as a symptom in several neurobiological disorders, including autism and Tourette’s syndrome, and it is sometimes seen during ‘pregnancy.

One of the meninges, the pia mater is the delicate innermost membrane enveloping the brain and spinal cord. It is known informally as the pia.

In medicine, not a private investigator but a principal investigator, the person who directs a research project or program.

The study of how living organisms function, including such processes as nutrition, movement, and reproduction.

Yellowish staining of the skin and whites of the newborn’s eyes (sclerae) by pigment of bile (bilirubin). In newborn babies a degree of jaundice is normal. It is due to the breakdown of red blood cells (which release bilirubin into the blood) and to the immaturity of the newborn’s liver (which cannot effectively metabolize the bilirubin and prepare it for excretion…

Something that is normal, that is due neither to anything pathologic nor significant in terms of causing illness. For example, physiologic jaundice is jaundice that is within normal limits.

A thick volume that provides a guide to prescription drugs available in the United States. Although not exactly recommended fare for bedtime reading, the PDR is the most commonly used drug reference. The information is the same as the leaflet in the drug package, also known as the package insert. Drug companies pay to have their drug…

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 and better access to health care. The first PA program was developed by Dr. Eugene Stead, chairman…