Pituitary Glossary starting with A

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Atherosclerosis

Atherosclerosis is the buildup of fat and other material inside the artery walls.

Atherosclerosis is a disease in which plaque (plak) builds up on the insides of the arteries. Arteries are blood vessels that carry oxygen-rich blood to the heart and other parts of the body. Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood. Over time, plaque hardens and narrows the arteries. The flow of oxygen-rich blood to the organs and other parts of the body is reduced. This can lead to serious problems, including heart attack, stroke, or even death.

Atrophic Vaginitis

Thinning of the lining of the vagina due to decreased production of estrogen.

Atrophic vaginitis is an inflammation of the vagina due to thinning and shrinking tissues and a decrease in lubrication. Atrophic vaginitis is typically caused by a decrease in estrogen levels that normally drop after menopause. The disorder may occur in younger women after surgical removal of the ovaries. Some women may develop the condition immediately after childbirth or while breastfeeding, due to low estrogen levels at these times.

Atrophy

A wasting of tissues, organs, or the entire body.

Muscle atrophy can be caused by lack of physical exercise (Disuse atrophy), and can be reversed by exercise. But the second and most severe type of muscle atrophy is neurogenic atrophy. It occurs when there is injury or disease to a nerve. This type of muscle atrophy tends to occur more suddenly than disuse atrophy. Diseases affecting the nerves that control muscles are poliomyelitis (polio), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease), and Guillain-Barre syndrome.

Attenuation

A decrease in vitality or pathogenicityof a microorganism or in the severity of a disease.

In radiology; the loss of energy of a beam of radiant energy due to absorption, scattering, beam divergence, and other causes as the beam propagates through a medium.

Audiometry

A test to measure hearing.

An audiology exam tests the ability to hear sounds by intensity (volume or loudness) and tone (the speed of sound wave vibrations). Sound waves move to the nerves of the inner ear and then the brain and can travel to the inner ear by air conduction (the ear canal, eardrum, and bones of the middle ear) or bone conduction (through the bones around and behind the ear).

Autologous

Coming from the same individual, as opposed to being donated by another individual.

Taken from an individual’s own blood, tissues, cells, or DNA.

Autosomal Kallman’s Syndrome

A form of inherited Kallmann’s syndrome which affects both men and women, because the sex chromosomes are unaffected.

Kallmann syndrome is a condition characterized by delayed or absent puberty and an impaired sense of smell. This disorder is a form of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism (HH), which is a condition affecting the production of hormones that direct sexual development. Males with hypogonadotropic hypogonadism are often born with an unusually small penis (micropenis) and undescended testes (cryptorchidism). At puberty, most affected individuals do not develop secondary sex characteristics, such as the growth of facial hair and deepening of the voice in males. Affected females usually do not begin menstruating at puberty and have little or no breast development. In some people, puberty is incomplete or delayed.

Autosomes

Those chromosomes which are not the sex chromosomes.

In humans, each cell normally contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, for a total of 46. Twenty-two of these pairs, called autosomes, look the same in both males and females. The 23rd pair, the sex chromosomes, differ between males and females. Females have two copies of the X chromosome, while males have one X and one Y chromosome.

Axillary Lymph Nodes

Lymph nodes in the armpit region that drains lymph channels from the breast.

Numerous nodes around the axillary (below the shoulder joint) veins which receive the lymphatic drainage from the upper limb, scapular region and pectoral region (including mammary gland); they drain into the subclavian trunk.

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