Medical terms - Letter M (page 14) | MedicalVocabulary.org

Migraineur

A person who has migraine headache. Borrowed from the French
Migrainous neuralgia

A distinctive syndrome of headaches, today better known as cluster headache. There are two main clinical patterns of cluster headache -- the episodic and the chronic: > >Episodic: This is the most common pattern of…
Mild cognitive impairment

Abbreviated MCI. A brain disorder in which thinking abilities are mildly impaired. Individuals with mild cognitive impairment are able to function in everyday activities but have difficulty with memory -- trouble…
Miliary aneurysm

An aneurysm that is tiny like a millet seed. Miliary aneurysms tend to affect minute arteries in the brain and, in the eye, in the retina. One of the botanical borrowings by medicine, 'miliary' refers to the millet…
Miliary tuberculosis

See: Tuberculosis, miliary
Milk allergy, cow

Casein and whey are the two major proteins of human milk and most milk-based formulas. Some (less than 8% of) infants have a true allergy to the cow proteins that are in milk-based formulas. Infants with true cow milk…
Milk, witch's

See Witch's milk.
Miller's lung

A type of allergic inflammation of the lungs (hypersensitivity pneumonitis) in people who are hypersensitive to the granary weevil (the wheat weevil or Sitophilus granarius). People who work with grains or flours…
Miller-Dieker syndrome

A congenital malformation syndrome characterized by lissencephaly ('smooth brain') and a characteristic facial appearance with a prominent forehead with bitemporal hollowing, short nose with upturned nares, thickened…
Milligram

A unit of measurement of mass in the metric system equal to a thousandth of a gram. A gram is equal to the mass of one milliliter, one thousandth of a liter, of water at 4 degrees C. The abbreviation for milligram is mg.
Milligray

A unit of absorbed radiation equal to 0.001 gray. (A gray is the dose of one joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of matter, or 100 rad.) Because the gray is such a large unit, many radiation measurements are made in…
Milwaukee brace

One of the two main types of braces used to treat the lateral curve of the spine in scoliosis. This brace can be worn to correct any curve in the spine. The brace can be custom made or can be made from a pre-fabricated…
Milzbrand

Known also as anthrax, milzbrand is a serious bacterial infection. It is not primarily a human disease but rather an infection of animals. Cattle, sheep, horses, mules, and some wild animals are highly susceptible…
Mimesis

Imitation or mimicry. Mimesis in medicine refers to the hysterical simulation of organic disease and to the imitation of one organic disease by another. Mimesis in aesthetic or artistic theory refers to the attempt to…
Mimetic

The adjective for 'mimesis' -- imitation or mimicry. A radiomimetic drug is one that imitates the effects of radiation as in the case of chemicals such as nitrogen mustards which are used in cancer chemotherapy…
Minamata disease

A disorder caused by methyl mercury poisoning that was first described in the inhabitants of Minamata Bay, Japan and resulted from their eating fish contaminated with mercury industrial waste. The disease is…
Mind

That which thinks, reasons, perceives, wills, and feels. The mind now appears in no way separate from the brain. In neuroscience, there is no duality between the mind and body. They are one
Miner's asthma

See: Black lung disease
Mineral requirements, infant

Minerals (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, iodine, copper and zinc) and trace elements (manganese, chromium, selenium, and molybdenum) are included in most infant formulas. Therefore, there is no evidence that…
Mineralocorticoids

A group of hormones (the most important being aldosterone) that regulate the balance of water and electrolytes (ions such as sodium and potassium) in the body. The mineralocorticoid hormones act on the kidney (and…
Minimal change disease

The most common form of the nephrotic syndrome, a kidney disorder that affects the structures called glomeruli which contain small capillaries surrounded by membranes through which the blood is filtered to form urine…
Minimal change nephrotic syndrome

See: Minimal change disease
Minimal residual disease

Evidence for the presence of residual malignant cells, even when so few cancer cells are present that they cannot be found by routine means. Tests for minimal residual disease (MRD) can detect some early tumors. In a…
Minimally invasive lung volume reduction

Minimally invasive techniques for reducing the lung volume in advanced emphysema, including COPD, to improve pulmonary function, exercise capacity, quality of life, and survival. Minimally invasive techniques are…
Minipill

A form of oral contraceptive taken daily, like combined oral contraceptives (the 'pill'), but containing only the hormone progestin and no estrogen. The minipill works by reducing and thickening cervical mucus to…
Minocin

Brand name for minocycline
Minocycline

A tetracycline antibiotic used to treat many different bacteria in urinary tract infections, acne, gonorrhea, and chlamydia, and other injections. The brand names for minocycline include Dynacin, Minocin, and Vectrin…
Minor

A minor is someone who is not yet an adult and, in a larger sense, it is something that is less than something else. For example, the teres minor muscle is smaller than the teres major muscle. In anatomy, wherever there…
Minor anomaly

An unusual anatomic feature that is of no serious medical or cosmetic consequence to the patient. A minor anomaly of the feet might, for example, be curvature of the second toe so it overlaps the third toe a little. A…
Minor salivary gland

A small gland which produces saliva. There are numerous minor salivary glands distributed within the mouth and palate.
Minot-Von Willebrand disease

See: Von Willebrand disease
Miosis

Contraction of the pupil. The opposite of mydriasis.
MiRNA

Micro-RNA
Mirror, mouth

See: Mouth mirror
Miscarriage

Miscarriage: Inadvertent loss of a pregnancy before the fetus is viable. A considerable proportion of pregnancies end in a miscarriage. Also called a spontaneous abortion.
Miscarriage, multiple

More than one miscarriage for a woman. In multiple miscarriages, there is about a 5 percent chance that one member of the couple is carrying a chromosome translocation responsible for the miscarriages. Other causes of…
Mismatch repair

A system within the cell for correcting errors in DNA that works by detecting and replacing bases in the DNA that are wrongly paired (mismatched bases). The system repairs the mismatch. When there is a mismatch in the…
Missense mutation

Mutation: A genetic change involving the substitution of one base in the DNA for another which results in the substitution of one amino acid in a polypeptide for another. A missense mutation is a 'readable' genetic…
Mite

A tiny eight-legged creature belonging to the Order Acarina related to spiders and ticks. Some mites live freely and others as parasites. Mites can attack plants and animals, carry disease, and cause allergies. acaricide
Mite, dust

See: Dust mite
Mite-borne typhus

Scrub: typhus, a mite-borne infectious disease caused by a microorganism, Rickettsia tsutsugamushi, characteristically with fever, headache, a raised (macular) rash, swollen glands (lymphadenopathy) and a dark crusted…
Miticide

An agent, usually a chemical, that kills mites. This class of pesticides is large and includes antibiotic miticides, carbamate miticides, formamidine miticides, mite growth regulators, organophosphate miticides, and…
Mitochondria

Normal structures responsible for energy production in cells. Mitochondria are located in the cytoplasm outside the nucleus of the cell. They consist of two sets of membranes, a smooth continuous outer coat and an inner…
Mitochondrial

Referring to mitochondria. The mitochondria are normal structures called organelles in cells. They are located in the cell's cytoplasm outside the nucleus. The mitochondria are responsible for energy production. They…
Mitochondrial cytopathy, Kearns-Sayre type

See: Kearns-Sayre syndrome
Mitochondrial disease

Mitochondrial disease: Mutations (changes) in the mitochondrial chromosome are responsible for a number of disorders including, for example: > >An eye disease called Leber's hereditary optic atrophy; >A type of epilepsy…
Mitochondrial DNA

>NARP -- which stands for Neuropathy, Ataxia and Retinitis Pigmentosa:isease with proximal muscle weakness, wobbliness, retinal disease, seizures and developmental delay; >MELAS -- which stands for Mitochondrial…
Mitochondrial encephalopathy, MELAS

MELAS is the acronym for Mitochondrial Encephalopathy, Lactic Acidosis, and Stroke-like episodes. MELAS is a form of dementia. It is caused by mutations in the genetic material (DNA) in the mitochondria. While most of…
Mitochondrial genome

All of the genetic information contained in the chromosome of the mitochondrion, a structure located in the cytoplasm outside the nucleus of the cell. The nucleus houses the better known chromosomal genome, our…
Mitochondrial inheritance

The inheritance of a trait encoded in the mitochondrial genome. Because of the oddities of mitochondria, mitochondrial inheritance does not obey the classic rules of genetics. Persons with a mitochondrial disease may be…