Terms 2 Flashcards
(104 cards)
Analgesia
A deadening or absence of the sense of pain without loss of consciousness.
Atrophy
a wasting or decrease in size or physiologic activity of a part of the body because of disease or other influences. A skeletal muscle may undergo atrophy as a result of lack of physical exercise or neurologic or musculoskeletal disease. Cells of the brain and central nervous system may atrophy in old age because of restricted blood flow to those areas
Chorea
a condition characterized by involuntary purposeless, rapid motions, as flexing and extending of the fingers, raising and lowering of the shoulders, or grimacing. The movements often appear to be well coordinated. In some forms the person is also irritable, emotionally unstable, physically weak, restless, and fretful.
- Huntington’s disease
Cogwheel rigidity
an abnormal rigor in muscle tissue characterized by jerky movements when the muscle is passively stretched. The condition is often found in cases of Parkinson’s disease.
Fasciculation
a localized uncoordinated, uncontrollable twitching of a single muscle group innervated by a single motor nerve fiber or filament that may be palpated and seen under the skin. In anesthesia it refers to muscle twitches that occur with administration of the depolarizing muscle relaxant succinylcholine. It also may be symptomatic of a number of disorders, including dietary deficiency, cerebral palsy, fever, neuralgia, polio, rheumatic heart disease, sodium deficiency, tic, or uremia.
Hemiparesis
Slight paralysis or weakness affecting one side of the body
Paralysis
the loss of muscle function, sensation, or both. It may be caused by a variety of problems, such as trauma, disease, and poisoning. Paralyses may be classified according to the cause, muscle tone, distribution, or body part affected
Paresthesias
A prickly, tingling sensation
Quadriplegia
paralysis of all four limbs
Spasticity
a form of muscular hypertonicity with increased resistance to stretch. It usually involves the flexors of the arms and the extensors of the legs. The hypertonicity is often associated with weakness, increased deep reflexes, and diminished superficial reflexes. Moderate spasticity is characterized by movements that require great effort and lack of normal coordination. Slight spasticity may be marked by gross movements that are coordinated smoothly but combine selective movement patterns that are incoordinated or impossible.
Tremor
a continuous repetitive twitching of skeletal muscle, usually palpable and visible. The diseases characterized by tremor only, the tremor syndromes, may be caused by degenerative disease of the nervous system, e.g. hypomyelinogenesis, and by many toxins, especially plant ones. Tremor is also a sign in many other diseases of the nervous system.
Xanthochromia
yellowish discoloration of the skin or spinal fluid. Xanthochromic spinal fluid usually indicates hemorrhage into the central nervous system and is due to the presence of xanthematin, a yellow pigment derived from hematin.
Somatoform
: denoting physical symptoms that cannot be attributed to organic disease and appear to be psychogenic.
Ataxia
Loss of the ability to coordinate muscular movement
Bradykinesia
abnormal slowness of movement
Clonus
: A form of movement marked by contractions and relaxations of a muscle, occurring in rapid succession, after forcible extension or flexion of a part
Dystonia
A movement disorder characterized by sustained muscle contractions that result in writhing or twisting movements and unsual body postures
Flaccid
Lacking firmness, resilience, or muscle tone
Hemiplegia
Paralysis affecting only one side of the body.
Paraplegia
Complete paralysis of the lower half of the body including both legs, usually caused by damage to the spinal cord.
Postictal
following a seizure.
Seizure
A paroxysmal episode, caused by abnormal electrical conduction in the brain, resulting in the abrupt onset of transient neurologic symptoms such as involuntary muscle movements, sensory disturbances and altered consciousness.
Syncope
a faint; temporary loss of consciousness due to generalized cerebral ischemia.
Pleocytosis
presence of a greater than normal number of cells in the cerebrospinal fluid.