Medical Dictionary Definitions A-Z List
Medical Dictionary Definitions A - Z - «H»:
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Heebie-jeebies
Heebie-jeebies: Extreme nervousness. A term coined by the America cartoonist Billy DeBeck (1890-1942) in his comic strip Barney Google....
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Heel bone
Heel bone: Formally called the
calcaneus. A more or less rectangular bone at the back of
the foot. The words "calcaneus" and "calcium" come from the
same source. ...
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Heel prick
Heel prick: A procedure in which the heel is pricked and then a small amount of the blood is collected, usually with a narrow-gauge ("capillary") glass tube or a filter paper. The heel prick is now the most common way to draw blood from newborns.
Blood from a heel prick may be used to do a number o...
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Heel spur
Heel spur: A bony spur projecting from the back or
underside of the heel that often makes walking painful.
Spurs at the back of the heel are associated with inflammation of
the Achilles tendon (Achilles tendinitis) and cause tenderness and
pain at the back of the heel that is made worse by pushi...
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Heel stick
Heel stick: A procedure in which a newborn baby's heel is pricked and then a small amount of the blood is collected, usually with a narrow-gauge ("capillary") glass tube or a filter paper.
The heel stick is now the most common way to draw blood from newborns. Blood from a heel stick is used to do th...
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Height growth
Height growth: See: Normal growth....
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Heights, fear of
Heights, fear of: An irrational unreasonable fear of heights is called acrophobia. From the Greek "acron", height + "phobos", fear....
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Heimlich maneuver
Heimlich maneuver: An emergency treatment for obstruction of the airway in adults. It may be needed when someone chokes on a piece of food that has "gone down the wrong way."
To perform the Heimlich maneuver, stand behind the
victim, wrap your arms around their waist, makes a fist with one hand an...
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Hejama
Hejama: Alternate Arabic term for cupping. The preferred Arabic term for this practice is al-hijamah. See: Cupping....
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HeLa cell
HeLa cell: One of the cells grown from the cervical cancer of a young African-American woman, Henrietta Lacks. HeLa cells were the first human cells to be continuously grown in culture.
The cells were first cultured in February 1951 by Drs. George and Margaret Gey at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Th...
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Helical CAT scan
Helical CAT scan: A conventional computerized axial tomography scan (CAT scan or CT scan) is an x-ray procedure which combines many x-ray images with the aid of a computer to generate cross-sectional views and, if needed, three-dimensional images of the internal organs and structures of the body. A ...
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Helicase
Helicase: An enzyme that unwinds double-strand DNA into two single DNA strands....
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Helicobacter heilmannii
Helicobacter heilmannii: A bacteria that infects most cats, dogs and pigs and, in them, causes stomach inflammation (gastritis). H. heilmannii is not usually transmitted from animals to
people. But people who have been infected by H. heilmannii
are known to have developed duodenal and gastric ulce...
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Helicobacter pylori
Helicobacter pylori: Bacteria that cause stomach
inflammation (gastritis) and ulcers in the stomach. This bacteria is
the most common cause of ulcers worldwide. It is often referred to as
H. pylori.
H. pylori infection is usually acquired from contaminated food and
water and through person to p...
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Helix, alpha
Helix, alpha: See: Alpha helix....
