Medical terms - Letter P (page 28) | MedicalVocabulary.org

Psychotropic medication

Any medication capable of affecting the mind, emotions, and behavior. Some medications such as lithium, which may be used to treat depression, are psychotropic. Also called a psychodynamic medication. From the Greek…
PTC (percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography)

See: Cholangiography, percutaneous transhepatic
PTCA

A winglike triangular membrane. Although a pterygium can be anywhere, including behind the knee, it commonly refers to a winglet of the conjunctiva. This pterygium may extend across the white of the eye toward the inner…
Pterygium

A winglike triangular membrane. Although a pterygium can be anywhere, including behind the knee, it commonly refers to a winglet of the conjunctiva. This pterygium may extend across the white of the eye toward the inner…
PTHC (percutaneous transhepatic cholangiography)

See: Cholangiography, percutaneous transhepatic
Ptosis

Downward displacement. Ptosis of the eyelids is drooping of the eyelids.
Ptosis of the eyelids, adult

Drooping of the upper eyelids in adults, most commonly due to separation of the tendon of the lid-lifting (levator) muscle from the eyelid. This may occur with age, after cataract or other eye surgery, an injury, eye…
Ptosis of the eyelids, congenital

Drooping of the upper eyelids at birth. The lids may droop only slightly or they may cover the pupils and restrict or even block vision. Moderate or severe ptosis calls for treatment to permit normal vision development…
PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder. (The abbreviation PTSD has rapidly gained in popularity because saying 'post-traumatic stress disorder' can be enough of a mouthful as to be stressful in itself.
PTU

Propylthiouracil, an antithyroid medication, a drug that blocks the production of thyroid hormone by the thyroid gland. PTU is used to treat hyperthyroidism in order to reduce the excessive thyroid activity before…
Pubarche

Just as menarche means the time when menstruation begins, pubarche indicates when pubic hair begins.
Puberty

Puberty: A complex biologic and psychologic process involving sexual development, accelerated growth, and adrenal maturation heralded by the secretion of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) from a part of the brain…
Puberty, precocious

Precocious puberty is the unusually early development of secondary sexual features. The onset of sexual maturation in a girl before age 8 or a boy before age 9 is usually considered to be precocious puberty
Pubic lice

Parasitic insects found in the genital area of humans. Pubic lice are usually spread through sexual contact. Rarely, infestation can be spread through contact with an infested person's bed linens, towels, or clothes. A…
Pubic symphysis

The joint between the pubic bones in the front of the pelvis. Also called the symphysis pubis
Pubis

The front center portion of the pelvis.
Public grief

See: Public mourning
Public health

>The assessment and monitoring of the health of communities and populations at risk to identify health problems and priorities; >The formulation of public policies designed to solve identified local and national health…
Public health school

A school designed to teach public health and train public health professionals. The first school of public health in the US, the School of Hygiene and Public Health, was founded in 1916 at Johns Hopkins University in…
Public Health Service, United States (USPHS)

The agency responsible for the public health of the American people. The Public Health Service (PHS) administers a number of critically important health agencies including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the…
Public mourning

The public display of grief. This may take many forms ranging from the very formal to the very informal, from stately funeral ceremonies designed to evoke a sense of meaning beyond the ephemeral to spontaneous shrines…
PUBS (percutaneous umbilical blood sampling)

In PUBS, a needle is inserted through the mother's abdominal wall and the uterine wall and usually blood is withdrawn from the umbilical vein where the umbilical cord inserts into the placenta. Blood may also be…
Pucker, macular

See: Macular pucker
Pudendum

The external genitalia, especially those of the female. From the Latin pudere, to be ashamed. See: Female external genitalia
Puerperal fever

Fever that lasts for more than 24 hours within the first 10 days after a woman has had a baby. Puerperal fever is due to an infection, most often of the placental site within the uterus. If the infection involves the…
Puerperium

The time immediately after the delivery of a baby. (In Latin a 'puerpera' is a woman in childbirth since 'puer' means child and 'parere' means to give birth.) Puerperal fever is childbirth (or childbed) fever due to an…
Pulled elbow

See: Nursemaid's elbow
Pulmonary

Having to do with the lungs. (The word comes from the Latin pulmo for lung).
Pulmonary acinus

The ending of a tiny airway in the lung, where the alveoli (air sacs) are located. In anatomy, an acinus is a round cluster of cells, usually epithelial cells, that looks somewhat like a knobby berry. The word 'acinus'…
Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis

Lung disease characterized by progressive difficulty breathing (dyspnea) and cough due to the accumulation of lipoprotein material within the alveoli that impairs ventilation. Lung biopsy is the gold standard for the…
Pulmonary arterial hypertension

See: Pulmonary hypertension
Pulmonary artery

One of the two vessels which are formed as terminal branches of the pulmonary trunk and convey unaerated blood to the lungs. The two pulmonary arteries differ in length and anatomy. The right pulmonary artery is the…
Pulmonary artery catheter

Also called a Swan-Ganz catheter. A light flexible balloon-tipped tube that is introduced into the pulmonary artery (the artery from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs). See; Catheter, Swann-Ganz
Pulmonary barotrauma

Damage to the lung from rapid or excessive pressure changes, as may occur when a patient is on a ventilator and is subjected to high airway pressure. Pulmonary barotrauma can also occur in scuba and other forms of diving
Pulmonary edema

Fluid in the lungs.
Pulmonary edema, high altitude

Pulmonary edema, high altitude: Known as HAPE (High Altitude Pulmonary Edema), a condition in which there is accumulation in the lungs of extravascular fluid (fluid outside of blood vessels) at high altitude, a…
Pulmonary embolism

Pulmonary embolism: The obstruction of the pulmonary artery or a branch of it leading to the lungs by a blood clot, usually from the leg, or foreign material causing sudden closure of the vessel. (Embolus is from the…
Pulmonary embolus

A blood clot that has passed into and occluded the lung's pulmonary artery. An embolus causes an embolism. In this case, the embolus, a clot or foreign material, has been carried through the blood into the pulmonary…
Pulmonary fibrosis

Pulmonary fibrosis: Scarring throughout the lungs which can be caused by many conditions such as, sarcoidosis, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, asbestosis, and certain medications. Pulmonary fibrosis can also occur without…
Pulmonary function test

A test designed to measure how well the lungs are working. Pulmonary function tests (PFTs) gauge how the lungs are carrying out their tasks -- of expanding and contracting (when a person inhales and exhales) and of…
Pulmonary hypertension

Pulmonary hypertension: High blood pressure in the pulmonary artery that conveys blood from the right ventricle to the lungs. The pressure in the pulmonary artery is normally low compared to that in the aorta. Pulmonary…
Pulmonary insufficiency

1. Incomplete closure of the pulmonary valve in the heart, allowing blood to return from the pulmonary artery into the right ventricle. 2. Respiratory insufficiency in which the lungs cannot take in enough oxygen or…
Pulmonary medicine

The branch of medicine that deals with the causes, diagnosis, prevention and treatment of diseases affecting the lungs. Pulmonary medicine deals with many diseases and conditions, including: ARDS (acute respiratory…
Pulmonary stenosis

The pulmonary valve is too tight so that the flow of blood from the right ventricle of the heart into the pulmonary artery is impeded. This means the right ventricle must pump harder than normal to overcome the…
Pulmonary stenosis, peripheral, with cholestasis

Also known as arteriohepatic dysplasia or Alagille syndrome, this ia a genetic disorder characterized by jaundice in the newborn period, liver disease with cholestasis, peripheral pulmonic stenosis and unusual face…
Pulmonary syndrome, Hantavirus

Exercises and treatments designed to help patients maintain and recover lung function, such as with cystic fibrosis and after surgery.
Pulmonary therapy

Exercises and treatments designed to help patients maintain and recover lung function, such as with cystic fibrosis and after surgery
Pulmonary trunk

A vessel that arises from the right ventricle of the heart, extends upward, and divides into the right and left pulmonary arteries that convey unaerated blood to the lungs. When the right ventricle contacts, the blood…
Pulmonary tuberculosis

See: Tuberculosis, pulmonary.
Pulmonary valve

One of the four valves in the heart, the pulmonary valve stands at the opening from the right ventricle in the pulmonary artery trunk. It lets blood head in the right direction (toward the lungs) and keeps it from…