Category: B

A membership organization which looks after the professional and personal needs of doctors in the UK, about 2 out of 3 doctors being members. It is also a trade union and negotiates doctors’ terms and conditions of service. It is not a disciplinary body.  

The professional association and trade union for UK dentists. It has about 23,000 members.  

The officially approved name for a medicinal substance used in the UK. A 1992 European Union directive required the use of a Recommended International Non-proprietary Name (rINN) for these substances. Usually the BAN and rINN were identical; where there was a difference, the rINN nomenclature is now used. An exception is adrenaline, which remains the…

Breath-holding attacks are not uncommon in infants and toddlers. They are characterised by the child suddenly stopping breathing in the midst of a bout of crying provoked by pain, some emotional upset, or loss of temper, and sometimes for no obvious reason. The breath may be held so long that the child goes blue in…

A set of investigations aimed at the early detection of breast cancer. It includes self-screening by monthly examination of the breasts, and formal programmes of screening by x-ray mammography in special clinics. In the UK the NHS offers regular mammography examinations to all women between 50 and 70 years of age at 80 special screening…

Brain damage, resulting in the irreversible loss of brain function, renders the individual incapable of life without the aid of a ventilator. Criteria have been developed to recognise that irreversible brain damage without chance of recovery has occurred and to allow ventilation to be stopped: in the UK, these criteria require the patient to be…

Most blows to the head cause no loss of consciousness and no brain injury. If someone is knocked out for a minute or two, there has been a brief disturbance of the brain cells (concussion); usually there are no after-effects. Most patients so affected leave hospital within 1-3 days, have no organic signs, and recover…

The conditions in which the fingers or toes are abnormally short.  

Brachycephalic means short-headed and is a term applied to skulls the breadth of which is at least four-fifths of the length. Having a cephalic index of 81.0 to 85.4. This is considered a short head but not necessarily abnormal, as this index falls within the standard range of variation among humans,  

Bornholm disease, also known as devil’s grip, and epidemic myalgia, is an acute infective disease due to coxsackie viruses. It is characterised by the abrupt onset of pain around the lower margin of the ribs, headache, and fever; it occurs in epidemics, usually during warm weather, and is more common in young people than in…