Heart and Circulation Terms

Speed is the point and equally the catch, since nothing given by this route can be recalled once it has entered the bloodstream.

The one route where absorption plays no part, which is both its great advantage and the reason it allows no second thoughts.

The delivery of a drug into a fluid-filled cavity within the heart or brain.

The part of the nervous system that controls muscles of internal organs (such as the heart, blood vessels, lungs, stomach, and intestines) and glands (such as salivary glands and sweat glands).

A procedure in which a catheter is placed into the artery that provides blood to the liver.

A surgical procedure during which the circulation of blood to the lungs is separated from the circulation of blood through the rest of the body, and a drug is delivered directly into the lung…

Bypassing the gut entirely means the whole amount arrives at once, which is an advantage in an emergency and a hazard in an error.

Cancer is found in the lining of the chest wall and may also be found in the lining of the lung, the lining of the diaphragm (the thin muscle below the lungs and heart that separates the chest from…

Blocking the receptor rather than the enzyme is what spares this drug the persistent dry cough that its older cousins provoke.

Blocking the receptor rather than the enzyme that builds the hormone is what spares this drug class the dry cough of its predecessor.

A chronic, inflammatory, connective tissue disease that can affect the joints and many organs, including the skin, heart, lungs, kidneys, and nervous system.

A pacemaker is an implanted device that monitors heart rhythm and delivers electrical stimulation whenever the heart beats too slowly or irregularly.

A vascular-acting photosensitizer consisting of a water-soluble, palladium-substituted bacteriochlorophyll derivative with potential antineoplastic activity.

The parasympathetic nervous system slows the heart and promotes digestion, largely opposing the body's fight or flight response.

Nourishment arrives already broken down and ready for the bloodstream, which is why the intestine can be bypassed for months or years.

The outer layer of the pericardium, which is a thin sac of tissue that surrounds the heart.

A pericardial effusion is excess fluid within the sac around the heart, which can impair the heart's ability to fill and pump normally.

A small, flexible tube used to deliver fluids into the body.

A procedure in which a small amount of radioactive glucose (sugar) is injected into a vein, and a scanner is used to make detailed, computerized pictures of areas inside the body where the glucose…

Redness, warmth, swelling, and tenderness along a vein, most often in the leg, are the hallmark signs of phlebitis.