ch 7 treatments & procedures

Antibiotic therapy

• Therapy against bacterial infections

  • Obtained from fungus or other bacteria, is toxic to the bacterial infection

  • Capable of developing resistance

Anticoagulant

• Chemical agent that delays or prevents blood clotting

• Given to reduce likelihood of blood clotting after surgery

• Most common anticoagulant is warfarin

Antiretroviral therapy

• Fights against retroviruses (class of viruses that mutate quickly)

• Often used against HIV (virus that causes AIDS)

  • Blocks HIV replication

Attenuation

• Process in which pathogens are made less infectious before being put into vaccines

• Derived from Latin word “attenuatus”, meaning “to make thin”

Blood chemistry

• Series of tests on blood plasma to measure levels of its composition (glucose, albumin, triglycerides, pH, cholesterol, electrolytes)

Blood culture

• Clinical test to determine infection in the blood

• Done by placing a blood sample into a nutrient-rich liquid medium to see what grows

Blood transfusion

• Introduction of blood, blood products, or blood substitute into a patient’s circulation to restore blood volume to normal levels

• 2 main types:

  • Autologous transfusion: receiving blood is donated by the patient

  • Homologous transfusion: receiving blood is from a donor 

    • Requires blood-type work called crossmatching to prevent incompatibility

Bone marrow transplant

• Placing donated donated bone marrow (often red marrow) into the recipient’s bone marrow

• Common procedure to treat leukemia or injury from chemotherapy or radiation therapy

Coagulation time

• Blood test determining how much time it takes for a blood clot to form

• Prothrombin time (PT): form of coagulation time test that measures the time needed for prothrombin (precursor blood-clotting protein) to form thrombin (which coagulated blood)

  • Often used to monitor effects of anticoagulants

• Partial thromboplastin time (PTT): used to evaluate blood clotting ability

Complete blood count (CBC)

• Lab test evaluating a blood sample to provide diagnostic info about a patient’s general health

• Measures hematocrit, hemoglobin, red blood count, white blood count, and sometimes a platelet count

Differential count

• Microscopic count of the # of each type of WBC in a blood sample

• Uses staining techniques to distinguish between cell types

Hematocrit

• CBC that measures the % of RBCs in a volume of blood

• Done by centrifuging a blood sample to separate plasma from blood cells

• Abbreviated as HCT or Hct

Hematology

• Field of medicine focusing on blood-related disease

Hemoglobin

• CBC that measure the level of hemoglobin in RBCs

• Anything below normal is diagnosed as a form of anemia

• Abbreviated as HGB or Hgb

Hemostasis

• The stoppage of bleeding

Immunization

• Treatment that establishes immunity against a foreign substance that would otherwise cause disease

• Inoculation of antigen components into patient, which stimulates immune response to produce memory lymphocytes and antibodies to use during future exposures

Immunology

• Science of immunity and allergy

Immunotherapy

• Treatment of infectious disease and certain cancers by giving pharmacological agents (like serum, gamma globulin, treated antibodies, activated WBCs, and suppressive drugs)

Lymphadenectomy

• Surgical removal of one or more lymph nodes

Platelet count

• Laboratory procedure that calculates the # of platelets in a known volume of blood

• Reduced # suggests potential failure of hemostasis bc platelets are heavily involved in blood clotting

Prophylaxis

• Any treatment that prevents the onset of an infection or disease

• Ex. washing your hands

• pro/phylaxis -> “protection before”

Red blood count

• Lab test included in CBC that measures # of RBCs within a known blood volume

Splenectomy

• Surgical removal of the spleen

• May be necessary if it has ruptured, which may happen during physical injury to left side of trunk

Thrombolysis

• Treatment to dissolve an unwanted blood clot

• thromb/o/lysis -> “dissolve clot”

Vaccination

• Inoculation of foreign substance that has reduced ability to cause infection into a patient

• Used to provide a cure or prophylaxis

Vaccine

• Chemical preparation used to active immune response to provide acquired immunity against an infectious pathogen