ANSWERS MARKED A+
✔✔antiemetics - ✔✔Substances that prevent or alleviate nausea and vomiting.
✔✔antigen - ✔✔A substance, usually a protein, that the body recognizes as foreign and
that can evoke an immune response.
✔✔apneustic center - ✔✔A portion of the pons that assists in creating longer, slower
respirations.
✔✔apoptosis - ✔✔Programmed cell death. Cytokines signal an infected or damaged
host cell to die, preventing further escalation of infection to additional host cells.
✔✔assessment-based patient management - ✔✔Utilizing the patient's cardinal
presentation; historical, diagnostic, and physical exam findings; and one's own critical
thinking skills as a health care professional to diagnose and treat a patient.
✔✔assisted reproductive technology (ART) - ✔✔Fertility treatments that help women
become pregnant.
✔✔ataxia - ✔✔Loss of coordination of muscle control, which can lead to gait
disturbance or extremity clumsiness. May be due to many causes, including peripheral
nerve, spinal cord, or brain dysfunction, often of the cerebellum, which controls
coordination.
✔✔atelectasis - ✔✔The collapse of the alveolar air spaces of the lungs.
✔✔complement cascade - ✔✔Complement can be triggered to be activated indirectly
by exposure to a pathogen in the innate immune response, causing opsonization of the
invading microbe, sending additional signals in the area to cause inflammation and
phagocytosis. It can also be triggered directly by exposure to specific antibodies to the
invading pathogen. This leads to formation of the membrane attack complex under the
classic complement cascade in the adaptive immunity response.
✔✔complement - ✔✔Inactive proteins produced by the liver that play a key role in the
innate and adaptive immune responses.
✔✔contaminated - ✔✔A condition of being soiled, stained, touched, or otherwise
exposed to harmful agents, making an object potentially unsafe for use as intended or
without barrier techniques; for example, entry of infectious or toxic materials into a
previously clean or sterile environment.
,✔✔culture of safety - ✔✔An organizational culture in which leaders, directors, and staff
emphasize safety over opposing goals.
✔✔Cushing triad - ✔✔Hypertension; bradycardia; and rapid, deep, or irregular
respirations.
✔✔cytokines - ✔✔Signaling proteins released by cells that initiate further response by
the surrounding cells.
✔✔decision-making capacity - ✔✔The ability to understand choices, the risks and
rewards of choices, and alternatives available so as to make an informed decision for
oneself.
✔✔decompression sickness - ✔✔A broad range of signs and symptoms caused by
nitrogen bubbles in blood and tissues coming out of solution on ascent.
✔✔decontamination - ✔✔The process of removing foreign material such as blood, body
fluids, or radioactivity; it does not eliminate microorganisms, but is a necessary step
preceding disinfection or sterilization.
✔✔delirium - ✔✔An acute mental disorder characterized by confusion, disorientation,
restlessness, clouding of consciousness, incoherence, fear, anxiety, excitement, and
often illusions.
✔✔dendritic cells - ✔✔Act as a messenger between the innate immune response and
the adaptive immune response. They present pieces of the invading microbe, known as
antigens, along their cell surface.
✔✔diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) - ✔✔An acute endocrine emergency caused by a lack of
insulin. The condition is characterized by an elevated blood glucose level, ketone
production, metabolic acidosis, dehydration, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and
tachypnea.
✔✔differential diagnoses - ✔✔The possible causes of the patient's clinical condition.
✔✔distribution - ✔✔The distribution of a medication throughout the body (between the
plasma and the other body components).
✔✔drowning - ✔✔The process of experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion
or immersion in liquid.
✔✔dysarthria - ✔✔Garbled speech (but of one's intended words) due to cranial nerve
motor dysfunction (distinguish from expressive and receptive aphasia).
, ✔✔elimination - ✔✔The process by which a drug is excreted from the body. In humans,
this is typically via the kidneys or the liver. Physiologic effects on these organs can
affect how fast or how much of a medication is removed from the body.
✔✔embolus - ✔✔A particle that travels in the circulatory system and obstructs blood
flow when it becomes lodged in a smaller artery. A blood clot is the most common type
of embolus, but fat (after long bone fracture), atherosclerotic, and air (diving) emboli can
also occur.
✔✔endemic - ✔✔A disease that is present in the community at a given baseline level
over time, such as herpes or chickenpox.
✔✔end-tidal carbon dioxide (ETCO₂) - ✔✔The CO₂ level in the expired air at the end of
expiration.
✔✔eosinophils - ✔✔Cells containing secretory granules that release histamine and
cytokines. They play a key role in parasitic infections and allergic reactions.
✔✔epidemic - ✔✔A disease that affects a significantly large number of people at the
same time and spreads rapidly through a demographic segment of the human
population.
✔✔epidemiology - ✔✔The study of the determinants of disease events in populations.
✔✔exercise-associated hyponatremia - ✔✔A condition due to prolonged exertion in a
hot environment coupled with excessive hypotonic fluid intake that leads to nausea;
vomiting; and, in severe cases, mental status changes and seizures (also known as
exertional hyponatremia).
✔✔exposure incidents - ✔✔Being in the presence of or subjected to a force or influence
(e.g., viral exposure, heat exposure).
✔✔expressive aphasia - ✔✔Inability to speak intended words due to dysfunction of the
cerebral speech center (Broca's area) in the left frontal lobe (distinguish from
dysarthria).
✔✔fomite - ✔✔An inanimate object that can become contaminated with an infectious
pathogen and spread disease.
✔✔frostbite - ✔✔Localized damage to tissues resulting from prolonged exposure to
extreme cold.
✔✔frostnip - ✔✔Early frostbite, characterized by numbness and pallor without
significant tissue damage.