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spinal puncture

(Encyclopedia)spinal puncture, surgical penetration of the spinal canal by a hollow needle introduced between two of the lumbar vertebrae. The arrangement permits injection of antibiotics or anesthetics (see anesth...

Summit, Pat

(Encyclopedia)Summit, Pat (Patricia Sue Summit), 1952–2016, American basketball player and coach, b. Clarksville, Tenn., as Patricia Sue Head. She played basketball at the Univ. of Tennessee at Martin, and upon g...

uremia

(Encyclopedia)uremia yo͝orēˈmēə [key], condition resulting from advanced stages of kidney failure in which urea and other nitrogen-containing wastes are found in the blood. Uremia can be caused by NSAIDs (nons...

Southcott, Joanna

(Encyclopedia)Southcott, Joanna southˈkət [key], 1750–1814, English religious visionary. Uneducated, even illiterate, she spent her earlier years in domestic service. She began c.1792 to claim the gift of proph...

Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise

(Encyclopedia)Barré-Sinoussi, Françoise, 1947–, French virologist, Ph.D. Pasteur Institute, Paris, 1974. She has been a professor at the Pasteur Institute since 1974 and was appointed head of its retroviral uni...

rifampin

(Encyclopedia)rifampin rĭfămˈpĭn [key], antibiotic used in the treatment of tuberculosis. It is also used to eliminate the meningococcus microorganism from carriers and to treat leprosy, or Hansen's disease. Ri...

orphan drug

(Encyclopedia)orphan drug, drug developed under the U.S. Orphan Drug Act (1983) to treat a disease that affects fewer than 200,000 people in the United States. The orphan drug law offers tax breaks and a seven-year...

cysteine

(Encyclopedia)CE5 CE5 cysteine sĭsˈtēn [key], organic compound, one of the 20 amino acids commonly found in animal proteins. Only the l-stereoisomer participates in the biosynthesis of mammalian protein...

Hawking, Stephen William

(Encyclopedia)Hawking, Stephen William, 1942–2018, British theoretical physicist, b. Oxford, England, grad. University College, Oxford, 1962, Ph.D. Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1966. In 1962 Hawking was diagnosed as ...

lymphatic system

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Lymphatic system lymphatic system lĭmfătˈĭk [key], network of vessels carrying lymph, or tissue-cleansing fluid, from the tissues into the veins of the circulatory system. The lymphatic sy...