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Brandt-Daroff maneuvers
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(brănt′dăr′ŏf) A series of exercises for patients with refractory positional vertigo. Patients are repeatedly asked to assume the positions that typically trigger attacks. After multiple attempts, habituation to the vertigo occurs, and the symptoms are relieved. The maneuvers are effective in about 80% of patients.
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(bran′ăm) [Henry H. Branham, 19th-cent. U.S. surgeon] In a patient with an arteriovenous fistula, the slowing of the heart rate that occurs when the fistula is compressed.
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(brăsh) A burning sensation in the stomach sometimes accompanied by belching of sour fluid. SYN: heartburn; pyrosis.
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water b. Reflex salivary hypersecretion in response to peptic esophagitis. brassica (brăs′ĭ-kă) [L. “cabbage”] The family of vegetables that includes broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and cauliflower.
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Braxton Hicks contractions
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(brăk′stŏn-hĭks″) [John Braxton Hicks, Brit. gynecologist, 1823–1897] False labor. These contractions are not true labor pains because they do not cause dilation and effacement of the cervix, but are often interpreted as such. SYN: Hicks sign.
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Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale
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(brā′zĕl-tŏn″) [Thomas Berry Brazelton, U.S. pediatrician, b. 1918] A scale for evaluating the behavior and responses of the newborn infant. It is based on four dimensions: interaction with the environment; motor processes, including motor responses, general activity level, and reflexes; control of physiological state as determined by reaction to a distinct stimulus such as a rattle, bell, light, or a pinprick; and response to stress as judged by tremulousness, startle reaction, and change in skin coloration. The test has been used as late as 1 week after birth to demonstrate alteration in an infant’s behavior due to drugs administered to the mother while the infant was in utero.
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bright red blood per rectum. SEE: hematochezia.
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(brāk) 1. In orthopedics, a fracture. 2. To interrupt the continuity in a tissue or electric circuit or the channel of flow or communication.
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(brāk′ă-wā″) In orthodontics, a device to apply tension or force to a facebow.
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(brāk′poynt″) 1. A cut off level. 2. An end point. 3. The threshold that defines the failure of a process or a material. 4. A lesion in a nucleic acid sequence in which there is a locus of chromosomal damage.
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(brāk′throo″ di-vīs′) A device or combination of products given accelerated premarket review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration because of their potential to improve the diagnosis or treatment ...