Cause specific Health Dictionary

Cause Specific: From 1 Different Sources


These rates commonly are also age, death rate sex, or race specific. They are expressed as numbers of deaths assigned to a stated cause in a calendar year, divided by total population as of July 1st of that year, expressed in 100,000.
Health Source: Dictionary of Tropical Medicine
Author: Health Dictionary

Specificity

A high rate of detection of “true negatives”, for example, the fraction of subjects who actually received bad care who are classified as recipients of bad care. For medical screening tests, the proportion of truly non-diseased persons who are so identified by the screening test. It is a measure of the probability of correctly identifying a non-diseased person with a screening test (synonymous with ‘true negative rate’).... specificity

Specific Gravity

The ratio of the density of a substance to that of water.... specific gravity

Non-specific Urethritis (nsu)

An in?ammatory condition of the URETHRA due to a cause or causes other than GONORRHOEA. The most common is CHLAMYDIA trachomatis – there has been a rise of over 75 per cent in the incidence in the UK over the past ?ve years to around 70,000 a year. It produces pelvic in?ammatory disease in women, which often results in sterility, the risk of ECTOPIC PREGNANCY, and recurrent pelvic pain. Most cases respond well to TETRACYCLINES. Abstinence from sexual intercourse should be observed during treatment and until cure is complete. Children born to infected mothers may have their eyes infected during birth, producing the condition known as ophthalmia neonatorum. This is treated by the application to the eye of chlortetracycline eye ointment. The lungs of such a child may also be infected, resulting in pneumonia.... non-specific urethritis (nsu)

Prostate Specific Antigen (psa)

An ENZYME produced by glandular tissue in the PROSTATE GLAND. When the gland enlarges (see PROSTATE, DISEASES OF), greater amounts of PSA are secreted, raising the concentration of the enzyme in the blood. This is especially so in cancer of the prostate, and testing the level of PSA is an indicator that the disease may be present. There is much controversy about the use of PSA as a screening test. Its proponents claim that its use reduces deaths from prostate cancer; its opponents suggest that it does this only by bringing to light many cases that needed no treatment and would not have caused death in any case. Further, if the level of PSA is very high, the disease is already advanced; where the result is equivocal it is uncertain whether the bene?ts of treatment outweigh the risks.... prostate specific antigen (psa)

Specificity

An epidemiological term (see EPIDEMIOLOGY) describing the extent to which a SCREENING TEST for the presence of the precursors of disease – for example, pre-malignant cells in the cervix – throws up false positives. A speci?c test has few false positives.... specificity

Specific Learning Disability

Difficulty in one or more areas of learning in a child of average or above average intelligence.

Specific learning disabilities include dyslexia and dyscalculia, where there is a problem with mathematics.... specific learning disability

Tumour-specific Antigen

A substance secreted by a specific type of tumour that can be detected in the blood and may be used to help monitor a patient’s response to therapy.

Alpha-fetoprotein is an example of a tumour-specific antigen.... tumour-specific antigen

Prostate Specific Antigen

(PSA) a protease enzyme produced by the glandular epithelium of the prostate. Its effect is to liquefy the semen within the ejaculate. Overall PSA has a half-life of 2–3 days. Increased quantities are secreted when the gland becomes enlarged or inflamed, and levels of PSA in the blood are significantly elevated in cancer of the prostate. Although there is no clear ‘cut-off’ level for normality, over 4 ng/ml in the blood is associated with a 20% risk of prostate cancer, even in patients with normal-feeling prostates on rectal examination. Age-specific PSA reference ranges are often used. Newer PSA assays can measure free PSA and compare it to the total PSA in the blood. Low free:total PSA ratios indicate a greater risk of prostate cancer and improve the discrimination between cancer and benign disease in men with a PSA in the range 4–10 ng/ml. PSA levels tend to be much higher in advanced prostate cancer and the rate of fall on treatment (e.g. after radical prostatectomy or radiotherapy) is a good prognostic indicator of response.... prostate specific antigen

Specific

1. n. a medicine that has properties especially useful for the treatment of a particular disease. 2. adj. (of a disease) caused by a particular microorganism that causes no other disease. 3. adj. of or relating to a species.... specific



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