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glaucoma

(Encyclopedia)glaucoma glôkōˈmə [key], ocular disorder characterized by pressure within the eyeball caused by an excessive amount of aqueous humor (the fluid substance filling the eyeball). This causes pressure...

Lefkowitz, Robert Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Lefkowitz, Robert Joseph, 1943–, American physician, b. New York City, M.D. Columbia, 1966. Since 1973 Lefkowitz has been a professor at Duke Univ.; he was appointed a Howard Hughes Medical Institut...

hypothalamus

(Encyclopedia)hypothalamus hīˌpəthălˈəməs [key], an important supervisory center in the brain, rich in ganglia, nerve fibers, and synaptic connections. It is composed of several sections called nuclei, each ...

nephritis

(Encyclopedia)nephritis nəfrīˈtəs [key], inflammation of the kidney. The earliest finding is within the renal capillaries (glomeruli); interstitial edema is typically followed by interstitial infiltration of ly...

aneurysm

(Encyclopedia)aneurysm ănˈyo͝orĭzəm [key], localized dilatation of a blood vessel, particularly an artery, or the heart. Dilatation of an artery, and therefore weakness of that portion of the arterial wall, ma...

Haldane, John Scott

(Encyclopedia)Haldane, John Scott, 1860–1936, British scientist, b. Edinburgh; father of John Burdon Sanderson Haldane. He made many important contributions to mine safety, investigating principally the action of...

Kobilka, Brian Kent

(Encyclopedia)Kobilka, Brian Kent, 1955–, American physician, b. Little Falls, Minn., M.D. Yale, 1981. He was a researcher at Duke Univ. from 1981 to 1989, where he worked with Robert Lefkowitz; in 1989 he joined...

starvation

(Encyclopedia)starvation, condition in which deprivation of food has forced the body to feed on itself. Causes are famine, fasting, malnutrition, or abnormalities of the mucosal lining of the digestive system. Fami...

osmosis

(Encyclopedia)osmosis ŏzmōˈsĭs [key], transfer of a liquid solvent through a semipermeable membrane that does not allow dissolved solids (solutes) to pass. Osmosis refers only to transfer of solvent; transfer o...

arteriosclerosis

(Encyclopedia)arteriosclerosis ärtĭrˌēōsklərōˈsis [key], general term for a condition characterized by thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the walls of the blood vessels. These changes are freq...