Body systems

Having to do with the radius, the forearm bone on the thumb side, or spreading out from a center.

A large nerve of the brachial plexus that carries feeling and movement for the back of the arm and forearm, the wrist and the fingers.

The pulse felt at the wrist, on the thumb side, over the radial artery.

Energy that travels as waves or particles, such as X-rays, used to make images or treat cancer; also pain that spreads from its starting point.

Treatment that uses high-energy rays or radioactive material to kill cancer cells or shrink tumors.

How far a joint can move in each of its normal directions, and the exercises that move joints through it.

A condition in which small arteries of the fingers and toes narrow too much in response to cold or stress.

The taking back of water and dissolved substances from the fluid in the kidney tubules into the blood.

The ability to tell the difference between one's own thoughts and feelings and what is really happening in the outside world.

A structure on or in a cell that a specific chemical, such as a hormone or drug, attaches to in order to act.

Relating to the rectum, the last part of the large intestine; also, given or measured through the rectum.

A bulge of the rectum forward into the back wall of the vagina, from weakened support between them.

The last part of the large intestine, between the colon and the anus, where stool is held until it leaves the body.

Latin for straight; the name of several straight muscles, such as the rectus abdominis of the abdomen and the rectus femoris of the thigh.

One of the two long, straight muscles that run up the front of the abdomen on either side of the midline, from the pubis to the ribs.

The return of a disease or symptom after a period when it had gone away.

Happening again after it has gone away, often more than once.

A branch of the vagus nerve that loops down into the chest and runs back up beside the trachea to work the muscles that move the vocal cords.

A blood cell that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body's tissues; also called an erythrocyte.

Starting food or nutrition support again in a person who has been starved or severely malnourished.

Dangerous shifts in fluids and minerals that can happen when a starved or severely malnourished person starts eating or being fed again.

An automatic body response to something that stimulates it, which happens without thought, such as the knee jerk.

A backward flow of fluid, most often of stomach contents up into the esophagus.

The bending of light as it passes from one clear material into another, as it does through the cornea and lens; also the eye test that measures it.

A flowing backward: blood leaking back through a heart valve, or stomach contents coming back up into the mouth.

Replacing the water and salts the body has lost, by mouth or through an IV.

The destruction of tissue or an organ transplanted from another person by the patient's own immune system, which attacks it as foreign.

The return of a disease or its symptoms after a period of improvement, or a return to substance use after a time without it.

A period when the signs and symptoms of a disease lessen or disappear.

Relating to the kidneys.

The artery that branches off the abdominal aorta to carry blood into each kidney.

The lighter outer zone of the kidney, under its capsule, that holds the filters of the nephrons and their twisting tubules.

Loss of the kidneys' ability to filter waste and extra fluid from the blood.

The inner zone of the kidney, made of cone-shaped renal pyramids whose tips drain urine into the calyces.

The funnel inside each kidney where the major calyces meet and collect urine before it passes into the ureter.

The tube of each nephron that carries fluid filtered by the glomerulus and turns it into urine by taking back what the body needs.

The vein that carries filtered blood out of each kidney straight into the inferior vena cava.

An enzyme released by the kidney when blood pressure or blood flow falls, which starts the chain of reactions that makes angiotensin II.

A chain of hormones that raises blood pressure and helps the body hold on to salt and water.

The process by which living things produce offspring.

The organs that make eggs or sperm and sex hormones, and that allow a pregnancy to begin and grow.

The air left in the lungs after breathing out as hard as possible.

The ability to cope with stress, hardship or trauma and to recover from it.

Breathing air in and out, and the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the air, the blood and the cells.

Relating to breathing or to the organs used for breathing.

A state in which the blood becomes too acidic because the lungs do not remove enough carbon dioxide.

An acid-base imbalance in which breathing out too much carbon dioxide makes the blood too alkaline.

Difficulty breathing severe enough that a person has to work hard to move air in and out.

A breathing disorder of newborns, mostly premature babies, whose lungs do not yet make enough surfactant.

A state in which the lungs cannot put enough oxygen into the blood, or cannot remove enough carbon dioxide from it.