Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Recurrent feigning of catastrophic illnesses. Munchhausen syndrome is a psychological disorder that is characterized by the recurrent presentation of the patient for treatment of an acute and often dire illness that is, in reality, not present. The person with Munchhausen syndrome usually gives a plausible and dramatic history. All of it is entirely false. The patient tends to…

A parenting disorder in which the parent either fabricates an illness or induces an illness in their child. Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSBP) differs from other forms of parenting disorder in that the offending parent is almost always the mother, she usually appears to be a model mother, there is little or no indication of family discord,…

The failure of two or more systems in the body as, for example, the cardiovascular and renal systems. Multiple system failure is also known as multiple organ failure, as when both the heart and kidney give out. Multiple organ or system failure is often given as the cause of death on the death certificate. However, the National Center for Health…

A disease that is characterized by loss of myelin (demyelinization). Abbreviated MS. Myelin, the coating of nerve fibers, is composed of lipids (fats) and protein. It serves as insulation and permits efficient nerve fiber conduction. In MS, demyelinization usually affects white matter in the brain, but sometimes it extends into the gray matter. When myelin is damaged, nerve fiber conduction is…

A bone marrow cancer that involves a type of white blood cell called a plasma (or myeloma) cell. The tumor cells in myeloma can form a single collection (plasmacytoma) or many tumors (multiple myeloma). Plasma cells are normally part of the immune system; they make antibodies. Because myeloma patients have an excess of identical plasma cells, they have…

A woman who has had two or more pregnancies resulting in potentially viable offspring. The term para refers to births. A para III has had three such pregnancies; a para VI or more is also known as a grand ‘multipara.

Having to do with two or more foci or arising from two or more places. For example, aortic aneurysm disease is often multifocal and needs total aortic screening for diagnosis.

In medicine, referring to multiple factors in heredity or disease. For example, traits and conditions that are caused by more than one gene occurring together are multifactorial, and diseases that are caused by more than one factor interacting (for example, heredity and diet in diabetes) are multifactorial.

(MDCT) A form of computed tomography (CT) technology for diagnostic imaging. In MDCT, a two-dimensional array of detector elements replaces the linear array of detector elements used in typical conventional and helical CT scanners. The two-dimensional detector array permits CT scanners to acquire multiple slices or sections simultaneously and greatly increase the speed of CT image acquisition. Image reconstruction…

Having more than one center. A term often applied to tumors. A minority of Wilms tumors are multicentric and appear to represent separate tumors. A multicentric breast cancer involves two or more distinct primary tumors, usually in different quadrants of the breast. Also called multifocal or polycentric.