Concise medical dictionary

The sixth edition of this dictionary provides full coverage of all the important terms and concepts used in medicine today. Written by a distinguished team of practising specialists and medical writers, it is intended primarily for workers in the paramedical fields: pharmacists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, social workers, hospital secretaries, administrators, technicians, and so on. It will also be invaluable for medical students and practising doctors. Each entry contains a basic definition, followed - where appropriate - by a more detailed explanation or description. A feature of the dictionary is that the articles are written in clear and concise English without the use of unnecessary technical jargon. For this reason the book will also be of both interest and value to the general reader who needs a home medical dictionary. The dictionary defines terms in anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, and pharmacology, as well as in all the major medical and surgical specialties. Its coverage of psychology and psychiatry, public health medicine and dentistry is unusually comprehensive, and this edition includes many new entries covering the latest developments in diagnostic radiology and radiotherapy, endocrinology, paediatrics, and urology, as well as the other medical and surgical specialties. Key terms in the developing specialty of advanced life support systems have also been added as new entries. Entries for many new drugs have been included, and drug names have been revised in accordance with the recently implemented EC directive on the use of recommended International Non-proprietary Names (rINNs); where these differ from the names commonly used in Britain, the latter are included both as synonyms for the rINNs and as cross-reference entries (see below). To avoid cluttering the entiy list with derivative words (e.g. adjectival forms of nouns that are defined), these words are listed at the end of the definitions of the words from which they are derived. Where necessary, articles are supplemented by clear and fiilly labelled line drawings. An asterisk against a word used in a definition indicates that this term has its own entry in the dictionary and that additional information can be found there. Cross-reference entries simply refer the reader to another entry, indicating either that they are synonyms or abbreviations or that they -together with related terms - are most conveniently explained in one of the dictionary’s longer articles. Synonyms and abbreviations are shown in brackets after the defined term.