Medical Glossary

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medical terms

Fava bean




Fava bean

The broad bean to which many people react adversely with an acute hemolytic anemia with sudden breakup of red blood cells (see Favism). Fava beans look like large tan lima beans. They are popular in Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cuisines, are eaten raw when very young, cooked in soups and many other dishes, and made into fava brittle (like peanut brittle) as candy. The botanical name for fava is Vicia fava. Fava is Italian for bean and refers specifically to the broad bean. Fava beans are the main commercial source of the drug L-DOPA.

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Acute
1. Of short course. 2. Severe, but of a short duration. Not chronic.

Anemia
Anemia is a condition in which a deficiency in the size or number of erythrocytes (red blood cells) or the amount of hemoglobin they contain limits the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the blood and the tissue cells. Most anemias are caused by a lack of nutrients required for normal erythrocyte synthesis, principally iron, vitamin B-12, and folic acid. Others result from a variety of conditions, such as hemorrhage, genetic abnormalities, chronic disease states or drug toxicity.

Blood
The life-maintaining fluid which is made up of plasma, red blood cells (erythrocytes), white blood cells (leukocytes), and platelets; blood circulates through the body's heart, arteries, veins, and capillaries; it carries away waste matter and carbon dioxide, and brings nourishment, electrolytes, hormones, vitamins, antibodies, heat, and oxygen to the tissues.



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Fatty acids,omega-3
A class of fatty acids found in fish oils, especially from salmon and other cold-water fish, that acts to lower the levels of cholesterol and LDL (low-density lipoproteins) in the blood.

Fatty alcohol
Fatty alcohol: NAD+ oxidoreductase deficiency. Clinically known as the Sjogren-Larsson syndrome, this is a genetic (inherited) disease usually characterized by a triad of findings consisting of ichthyosis (thickened fish-like skin), spastic paraplegia (spasticity of the legs) and mental retardation.

Fatty aldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency
Also known as the Sjogren-Larsson syndrome, this is a genetic (inherited) disease usually characterized by a triad of clinical findings consisting of ichthyosis (thickened fish-like skin), spastic paraplegia (spasticity of the legs) and mental retardation.

Fatty liver of pregnancy, acute
Liver failure in late pregnancy, usually from unknown cause. Acute fatty liver of pregnancy (AFLP) typically occurs in first-time pregnancies in the last trimester.

Fauces
The throat. The word fauces is the plural of the Latin faux meaning a small passage.

Fava bean

Favism
A condition characterized by hemolytic anemia (breakup of red blood cells) after eating fava beans (Vicia fava) or being exposed to the pollen of the fava plant. This dangerous reaction occurs exclusively in people with a deficiency of the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD), an X-linked genetic trait. However, not all G6PD-deficient families appear at risk for favism, indicating the additional need for a single autosomal (not X-linked) gene to create the susceptibility to favism of G6PD-deficient persons. The active hemolytic principle in fava beans is > likely DOPA-quinone. Differences in susceptibility to favism may be related to differences in the enzymatic system that converts L-DOPA to DOPA-quinone.

FBLN3
The gene encoding the protein known as fibulin 3.

FBLN5
The gene encoding the protein known as fibulin 5.

FBN1
The fibrillin 1 gene. This gene is mutated in Marfan syndrome, the MASS syndrome, and related disorders of connective tissue. The FBN1 gene produces a protein called fibrillin-1 which is transported out of the cell and deposited in the extracellular matrix, the intricate lattice in which cells are embedded to build tissues. In this matrix, fibrillin becomes part of small threadlike filaments called microfibrils, which in turn help build elastic fibers. Elastic fibers are essential for the function of flexible structures such as blood vessels, the lungs, and skin.

FCC
In medicine, familial colorectal cancer.

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This dictionary contains 19186 terms.







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