Author: Glossary

The causative agent of malignant (falciparum) malaria.  

A protein that degrades extracellular tissues. It has been linked to the invasive and metastatic spread of cancers.  

A high-molecular-weight compound in a solution suitable for intravenous use. The materials, such as dextran or certain proteins, are used in treating shock caused by loss of blood volume.  

A blood test to detect adrenoleukodystrophy in infants suspected of the disease or adrenomye-loneuropathy in adults with progressive paraparesis.  

A standard sterile preparation of serum albumin and globulin obtained by fractionating blood, serum, or plasma from healthy human donors and testing for absence of hepatitis B surface antigen. It is used as a blood volume expander.  

The removal of plasma from a patient (usually to treat an immmunologically mediated illness such as thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura or myasthenia gravis) and its replacement with normal plasma. Plasma exchange therapy can also be used to replace excessively viscous plasma in patients with Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. Pathological (disease-causing) antibodies, immune complexes, and protein-bound toxins are removed…

The undifferentiated cell that will mature into a B lymphocyte and ultimately into a plasma cell.  

The natural separation of red blood cells from plasma at bifurcations in the vascular tree, dividing the blood into relatively concentrated and relatively dilute streams.