Author: Glossary
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Failed back surgery syndrome
Persistent or recurring low back pain (with or without sciatic symptoms) in patients who have undergone one or more surgeries on a lumbar disk.
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Fahr’s syndrome
A rare movement disorder caused by the abnormal accumulation of calcium in the basal ganglia and the cerebral cortex. The disease is dominantly inherited.
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Faget’s sign
In a patient with a fever, a pulse slower than would be expected. It may be seen in some viral infections. When an elevated body temperature coincides with a decelerated cardiac rhythm, it signifies the occurrence of a peculiar phenomenon.
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Fagales
The order of trees and shrubs that includes alder, birch, and hazel. The pollen from such trees causes hay fever, principally in the early spring.
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Spreading factor
The hyaluronidase made by Bacillus anthracis, the bacteria that causes anthrax.
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Platelet-activating factor
A phospholipid that affects the signaling between cells in important body processes such as inflammation, sepsis, and thrombosis. It is released by mast cells, basophils, and activated eosinophils.
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Neutrophil chemotactic factor
A lymphokine that attracts neutrophils, but not other white blood cells, and causes proteolytic damage in sepsis and trauma.
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Milk factor
A substance present in certain strains of mammary cancer- prone mice that is transferred to offspring through milk from the mammary glands. It can induce the development of mammary cancer in suckling mice exposed to the factor.
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Maturation-promoting factor
A complex cellular protein that stimulates cell division in eukaryotic cells. Part of MPF is the protein cyclin, which accumulates during interphase and triggers mitosis or meiosis.
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Magnification factor
Image size divided by object size; a quantitative expression of the degree of enlargement of an image. In radiography, it is the ratio of the source-to-image-receptor distance to the source-to-object distance.