Category: Wa-Wz

Abbreviation for weight. For example, ‘Wt 80 lbs’ means ‘weight 80 pounds.’

The subagency of the United Nations (UN) that is concerned with international health. Abbreviated WHO. Also known as Organisation Mondiale de la Sant’ (OMS).

A neurological disorder characterized by loss of the ability to read or understand the written word. Word blindness is a complex visual disturbance resulting from disease in the visual-association areas at the back of the brain. Someone who has had a stroke may be left with pure (total) or partial word blindness. Partial word blindness permits the individual to recognize letters…

A hospital for the exclusive use of women. The first hospital called by that name was the Woman’s Hospital of New York City. It opened in 1855. The hospital was founded by the Woman’s Hospital Assn., a group of 30 women who held that there women needed a hospital to care exclusively for them. In…

The womb (uterus) is a hollow, pear-shaped organ located in a woman’s lower abdomen between the bladder and the rectum. The narrow, lower portion of the uterus is the cervix; the broader, upper part is the corpus. The corpus is made up of two layers of tissue.

A condition that is caused by an abnormality in the electrical system of the heart, which normally tells the heart muscle when to contract. Abbreviated WPW syndrome. In WPW syndrome there is an extra electrical connection inside the heart that acts as a short circuit, causing the heart to beat too rapidly and sometimes in an irregular…

Medical shorthand for within normal limits. For example, a laboratory test result may be WNL.

Medical shorthand for white male.

Abnormal physical or psychological features that follow the abrupt discontinuation of a drug that has the capability of producing physical dependence. In example, common opiates withdrawal symptoms include sweating, goosebumps, vomiting, anxiety, insomnia, and muscle pain.

A folk term for the milk that often comes from the breast of a newborn baby. This temporary phenomenon is due to stimulation of the baby’s breasts by the mother’s hormones that cross the placenta during pregnancy. The ability of the baby’s breasts to respond in this fashion is a mark of baby born at…