Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Nearsightedness, the ability to see close objects more clearly than distant objects. Myopia can be caused by a longer-than-normal eyeball or by any condition that prevents light rays from focusing on the retina. Most forms of myopia can be managed with corrective lenses. Surgery is available to permanently correct some forms of myopia, although long-term effectiveness and…

Any and all diseases of muscle.

The muscular outer layer of the uterus.

A tumor of muscle. Myoma can refer specifically to a benign tumor of uterine muscle, also called a leiomyoma or a fibroid.

A muscle cell. From myo-, muscle + -cyte, cell = muscle cell. “Remaining young at heart is a desirable but elusive goal. Unbeknown to us, however, myocyte regeneration may accomplish just that.” (Nature 415, 240, 2003)

A condition of abnormal contraction of muscles or portions of muscles.

Inflammation of the myocardium, the heart muscle. Myocarditis can be caused by a number of different conditions. The most common cause is infection of the heart muscle by a virus. The virus causes the initial heart muscle inflammation. After the initial viral infection subsides, the body’s immune system continues to inflict inflammatory damage on the heart muscles, prolonging the myocarditis, a…

A heart attack. Abbreviated MI. The term “myocardial infarction” focuses on the myocardium (the heart muscle) and the changes that occur in it due to the sudden deprivation of circulating blood. The main change is necrosis (death) of myocardial tissue. The word “infarction” comes from the Latin “infarcire” meaning “to plug up or cram.” It refers to the clogging…

A prefix denoting a relationship to muscle. Myo- enters into many words and terms in medicine including cardiomyopathy, dermatomyositis, electromyography, leiomyoma, myocardial infarction, myocarditis, myocardium, myoclonic, myocyte, myopathy, myoglobin, myometrium, myotonia, myotonic dystrophy, and polymyositis.

A base excision repair gene responsible for an hereditary colon cancer syndrome. MYH is located on the short (p) arm of chromosome 1 in region 1p34.3-p32.1. MYH encodes an enzyme that removes the base adenine from mispairs (with 8-oxoguanine) that arise during the replication of oxidized DNA. MYH is also known as MUTYH. A substantial proportion of people with multiple polyps…