2,701 articles
Vulva
The vulva (pudendum) is the external female genitalia: mons pubis, labia, clitoris, vestibule, and glands, serving protection, sexual pleasure, and parturition, distinct from the internal vagina.
Waist
Waist: trunk girth between the lower ribs and iliac crests; measured by WHO/NHLBI protocols; cutoffs 94/80 and 102/88 cm; visceral fat risk indicator; also a fashion-history subject (corsetry).
Wallerian degeneration
Wallerian degeneration, described by Waller in 1850, is the programmed degeneration of axons distal to nerve injury, driven by NMNAT2 loss and SARM1-mediated NAD+ depletion; the WldS mouse mutation delays it, and the pathway is a drug target in neurodegenerative disease.
WAY-100635
WAY-100635 is a phenylpiperazine that acts as a potent silent antagonist of the serotonin 5-HT1A receptor, and labeled with carbon-11 it became the first PET radioligand for imaging 5-HT1A receptors in the living human brain.
Weber test
Weber test: bedside hearing test, created by Ernst Heinrich Weber in 1834, placing a 512-Hz tuning fork on the midline skull; sound lateralizes toward a conductive loss and away from a sensorineural loss, complementing the Rinne test.
Weight-Bearing
Weight-bearing is the physical state of supporting an applied load, typically body weight carried by the spine, hip, knee, and foot; weight-bearing exercise strengthens bone, unlike swimming or cycling.
Wellens' syndrome
Wellens' syndrome (LAD coronary T-wave syndrome): pain-free ECG pattern of biphasic or deeply inverted precordial T waves (V2-V3) signaling critical proximal left anterior descending stenosis; first described 1982; high specificity, low sensitivity; needs urgent PCI, not stress testing.
Wenis
Wenis (weenis, weenus, wenus) is 1990s-era English slang for the loose skin on the outside of the elbow, a schoolyard joke word echoing penis; it has no official medical name, unlike the olecranal skin it describes.
Wernicke's area
Wernicke's area (Brodmann area 22), posterior superior temporal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere, described by Carl Wernicke in 1874; traditionally the language comprehension center, now reinterpreted as supporting phonological retrieval.
White pulp
White pulp, also called the Malpighian body of the spleen, is the lymphoid tissue surrounding the central arteries where adaptive immune responses to blood-borne antigens are initiated.
Widow's peak
Widow's peak: a V-shaped point in the hairline at the center of the forehead, named for a widowhood superstition; a normal variant, wrongly taught as a single dominant gene, and distinct from a receding hairline.
William Harvey
William Harvey (1578–1657), English physician and anatomist, demonstrated the circulation of the blood in De Motu Cordis (Frankfurt, 1628) using ligature experiments, venous valves, and a quantitative flow argument, overturning Galenic physiology.
William S. Marras
William S. Marras is an American ergonomics researcher at Ohio State University who directs its Spine Research Institute and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2009.
Wingate test
The Wingate test is a 30-second all-out cycling test on a cycle ergometer that measures peak anaerobic power, mean power, and fatigue in sports science.
Witzelsucht
Witzelsucht, from German Witz (joke) and Sucht (addiction), is a rare neurological syndrome of compulsive punning and inappropriate joking after right frontal lobe damage; coined by Hermann Oppenheim in 1890, distinct from Jastrowitz's moria.
Women's Health Initiative
Women's Health Initiative (WHI), NHLBI-sponsored US study launched 1991: 161,808 postmenopausal women at 40 centers in three randomized trials (hormone therapy, low-fat diet, calcium/vitamin D) plus an observational study; 2002 hormone results reshaped menopause care.
Work of Breathing
Work of breathing (WOB, Wb): mechanical work respiratory muscles expend to overcome elastic and resistive loads, measured via esophageal pressure–volume loops (Campbell diagram); resting values 2.4–4 J/min; method-dependent.
Wormian bones
Wormian bones (sutural bones, Ossa suturalia) are small irregular accessory bones forming within cranial sutures and fontanelles, most often the lambdoid suture; usually benign, but numerous ones mark osteogenesis imperfecta and craniosynostosis.
Wrist
Wrist: the radiocarpal joint region linking forearm and hand, formed by the distal radius with the scaphoid, lunate, and triquetrum; distal radius fractures are the most common adult fracture.
Wrist drop
Wrist drop, also called radial nerve palsy, is loss of wrist, finger, and thumb extension from radial nerve injury. Causes include humeral shaft fractures, Saturday night palsy compression, and PIN entrapment; over 90% recover in 3 to 4 months.
X-linked endothelial corneal dystrophy
X-linked endothelial corneal dystrophy (XECD, OMIM 300779) is a very rare X-linked posterior corneal dystrophy mapped to Xq25 with unknown gene; males have congenital ground-glass corneal clouding, females only moon crater-like endothelial changes.
X-linked parkinsonism-spasticity syndrome
X-linked parkinsonism-spasticity syndrome, also known as X-linked parkinsonism with spasticity, is a rare inherited neurological disorder affecting males, caused by mutations in the ATP6AP2 gene on the X chromosome.
X-linked spastic paraplegia type 34
X-linked spastic paraplegia type 34 (SPG34, OMIM 300750) is an extremely rare, pure hereditary spastic paraplegia, X-linked recessive, mapped to Xq25 with the gene unidentified, reported in one family, onset 12–25 years, treated symptomatically.
Xiphoid process
Xiphoid process (xiphisternum, processus xiphoideus sterni): the smallest, most inferior part of the sternum, 2–5 cm, cartilage at birth ossifying variably with age; anchors the diaphragm, rectus abdominis, obliques, and linea alba, and is highly variable in shape (bifid, curved, foramina).
Yang Chai
Yang Chai is a craniofacial scientist and dean of the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California, elected to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018.
Yawn
Yawn: involuntary wide mouth opening with deep inhalation and slow expiration, nearly universal in vertebrates. Functions debated: brain thermoregulation and arousal; contagious yawning shows familiarity bias and reduced susceptibility with psychopathic traits.
Yellow nail syndrome
Yellow nail syndrome (YNS) is a rare triad of slow-growing yellow dystrophic nails, lymphedema, and respiratory disease, first described by Samman and White in 1964; two of three features suffice for diagnosis, and treatment is symptomatic.
Young adult
Young adult: life stage between adolescence and full adulthood; UN youth 15-24, WHO young people 10-24, US usage 18-25/26; brain matures mid-to-late 20s; distinct from YA fiction genre.
Zellweger syndrome
Zellweger syndrome, the severe form of Zellweger spectrum disorder (ZSD, cerebrohepatorenal syndrome), is an autosomal recessive peroxisome biogenesis disorder caused by PEX gene defects, mainly PEX1, causing hypotonia, seizures, and early death.
ZVS101e (CYP4V2 AAV gene therapy)
ZVS101e, also registered as rAAV2/8-hCYP4V2, is an AAV gene therapy delivering a functional CYP4V2 gene by subretinal injection, developed by Chigenovo of Beijing to treat Bietti crystalline corneoretinal dystrophy.