Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

1. Literally, relating to a maternal aunt.2. Figuratively, suggestive of an aunt on either side of the family. 3 In medical genetics, pertaining to an aunt. An materteral relationship is the genetic relationship between aunts and their nieces and nephews. Materteral is synonymous with materterine. From the Latin matertera meaning maternal aunt, from mater meaning mother. The feminine counterpart of avuncular (like an uncle).

The presence of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) , a plasma protein normally produced by the fetus, in the mother’s blood. MSAFP serves as the basis for some valuable tests.Alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is a plasma protein that is normally produced by the fetus. It serves as the basis for some valuable tests. Alpha-fetoprotein is manufactured principally in the fetus’s liver and gastrointestinal (GI)…

The age of the mother at the time of delivery. Advanced maternal age is usually defined as age 35 or more at delivery. Advanced maternal age predisposes to Down syndrome (trisomy 21). The risk of having a Down syndrome baby rises with maternal age. It essentially doubles from 1 in 725 at maternal age 32 to 1…

1. The branch of medical science concerned with the study of drugs used in the treatment of disease: includes pharmacology, clinical pharmacology, and the history and physical and chemical properties of drugs. 2. The drugs used in the treatment of disease. A synonym for pharmacology. From the Medieval Latin meaning medical material.

The therapeutic practice of manipulating the muscles and limbs to ease tension and reduce pain. Massage can be a part of physical therapy or practiced on its own. It can be effective for reducing the symptoms of disorders of or pain in the muscles and nervous system, and it is often used to reduce stress.

An expressionless face with little or no sense of animation; a face that is more like a mask than a normal face. Masklike face is seen in a number of disorders, including Parkinson’s disease and myotonic dystrophy. Also known as masklike facies.

MASA stands for mental retardation, aphasia, shuffling gait, and adducted thumbs. Features of the syndrome include: MASA is inherited as an X-linked trait and so affects mainly boys. Alternative names for MASA include clasped thumb and mental retardation, congenital clasped thumb with mental retardation, adducted thumb with mental retardation, and the Gareis- Mason syndrome.

A sign of a disease or condition that can be isolated from a blood sample. For example, the monoclonal antibody D8/17 is a diagnostic sign of pediatric autoimmune disorders associated with streptococcus.

A piece of DNA that lies on a chromosome so close to a gene that the marker and the gene are inherited together. A marker is thus an identifiable heritable spot on a chromosome. A marker can be an expressed region of DNA (a gene) or a segment of DNA with no known coding function.…

A synonym for ankylosing spondylitis. Named for the French neurologist Pierre Marie (1853-1940) and the German neurologist whose full name was Ernst Adolf Gustav Gottfried von Str¨mpell (1853-1925).