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Introduction To Health Sciences Vocab

Subject : health-sciences
Instructions:
  • Answer 50 questions in 15 minutes.
  • If you are not ready to take this test, you can study here.
  • Match each statement with the correct term.
  • Don't refresh. All questions and answers are randomly picked and ordered every time you load a test.

This is a study tool. The 3 wrong answers for each question are randomly chosen from answers to other questions. So, you might find at times the answers obvious, but you will see it re-enforces your understanding as you take the test each time.
1. A small - thin-walled - air sac in the lungs surrounded by a network of blood capillaries where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place between the lungs and the blood.






2. A chronic - irreversible disease of the lungs characterised by loss of elastic recoil and enlarged air spaces in the lungs due to destruction of the walls of the alveoli and small airways.






3. X-ray imaging of the breast.






4. The use of a spirometer to measure the volume of air entering and leaving the lungs.






5. Often abbreviated to 'compound': a substance made up of two or more elements; it may be composed of molecules or ions.






6. A group of primates - to which modern humans belong - characterised by upright posture and a very large brain in relation to body size.






7. A technique where people learn to change their thought patterns and behaviour to create feelings of coping and self-efficacy; e.g. people in chronic pain might be taught to place a less catastrophic interpretation on their pain.






8. A constantly repeating variation of some quantity that transfers energy from one position in a medium to another.






9. A beneficial effect deriving from a procedure with no intrinsic benefit. It relies upon the context in which the intervention is made; e.g. a sugar pill might serve as a placebo if the patient believes that it will bring some benefits. (






10. A process whereby a parameter is maintained at a nearly constant value because deviations from its normal value tend to trigger actions that 'negate' the deviation and return it to normality; e.g. a fall in body temperature is fed back via the nervou






11. The number of cases of a disease - disorder or disability in a population - relative to the total number of people at risk of developing it; usually expressed as the number of cases per 1000 (or per 10 000 - or per 100 000 or per million) population.






12. One of a family of similar chemicals that have the generic name of 'alcohol' - with the chemical formula C2H5OH.






13. A value which can be used to calculate the degree to which X-rays (or other radiation) are reduced in intensity when passing through a material (e.g. human tissue).






14. Vital to many chemical reactions in the body. Crystals containing these form an important part of the structure of bones.






15. A subunit of the litre - the standard scientific (SI) unit for measuring volume; there are 100 of these in a litre.






16. The change of thickness of the lens of the eye so that focal length changes. This allows light from objects at different distances to be sharply focused in turn on the retina.






17. A cancer that has the ability to spread or metastasise into healthy tissue. (Also called 'invasive' cancer)






18. The blood pressure that is detected between heart contractions (lower than the systolic blood pressure).






19. Disease - disorder or disability.






20. The pressure exerted by a gas. It is the sum of the partial pressures of each individual gas in a mixture of gases - e.g. oxygen - carbon dioxide - nitrogen and other gases that make up the air in the lungs.






21. A medically qualified person who has chosen to specialise in clinical radiology - the use of imaging to diagnose - treat and monitor various disease processes.






22. The binding that occurs between a signalling molecule and its specific receptor. The specificity of the binding is analogous to that of a particular key in a particular lock; e.g. the binding between a neurotransmitter and its receptor - or a hormone






23. The type of blood cell that transports oxygen; also known as a red blood cell.






24. The unit used to measure equivalent dose and effective dose (Sv).






25. A process at an interface of two media in which light is returned into the original medium without transmission or absorption.






26. A fracture that occurs because the bone has been weakened through osteoporosis.






27. Categorised into three progressive stages: fatty liver - hepatitis and cirrhosis.






28. The value of a characteristic in terms of its contribution to the survival and reproductive chances of an animal.






29. Stimuli that are associated with actual or potential damage to body tissues.






30. A type of cell that is found within the nervous system and Which is specialised to transmit and process information (colloquially referred to as 'nerve cell').






31. A fracture where the bone bends and only breaks on one side; commonest in children - whose bones tend to bend rather than break completely.






32. Literally meaning 'alien to nature' - the term is commonly used to refer to chemicals in the natural environment that are of human origin.






33. Pain that is triggered by a stimulus that causes actual or potential damage to the tissues of the body.






34. The thinnest blood vessels.






35. The visual condition of short-sightedness in which images of distant objects cannot be focused sharply.






36. In screening - a person whose screening test result is positive (indicating disease) - but who actually does not have the disease.






37. A measure of the dose of ionising radiation to an organ that takes into account the type of radiation used. Some types of radiation are more damaging than others (because they tend to lead to double-strand breaks in the DNA rather than the more easil






38. Injury causing physical damage to the body.






39. A) A transparent and flexible convex structure behind the iris that (together with the cornea) refracts light. b) A transparent object - usually made of glass or plastic - that refracts light. Found in spectacles - magnifying glasses and microscopes.






40. A small unit of energy frequently used by physicists and denoted by the symbol eV.






41. A cell that is part of a malignant tumour; not subject to the body signals that tell normal cells when to divide or stop dividing - so they multiply in an uncontrolled way.






42. The process whereby oxygen is taken up by cells and used in chemical reactions involving the oxidation of nutrient molecules (e.g. glucose) derived from food; these reactions release usable chemical energy for cellular processes. (CS 5 & 7)






43. The expansion of narrow blood vessels immediately beneath the skin; as they dilate they can carry more blood.






44. Industrial chemicals - commonly found as environmental pollutants - that disrupt the hormonal systems of animals - including humans.






45. A) A process in which the photon energy is captured by a medium - without transmission or reflection. b) The process by which the molecules released from digested food pass through the wall of the gut and into the surrounding blood vessels.






46. Abbreviation of a eye-surgery technique where a flap is cut in the cornea and laser treatment applied beneath.






47. A study in which the participants do not know into which group they have been allocated - e.g. whether they have received a drug or a placebo.






48. Microbes that cause disease.






49. A process in which light passes through a medium unaffected - e.g. light passing through clear glass.






50. A test that evaluates how well the lungs work; also known as a pulmonary function test.