Clinical assessment and procedures

DMSA scan

A DMSA scan is a nuclear medicine imaging test using a technetium-99m tracer to picture functioning kidney cortex, most often in children after urinary tract infection.

DN trial (NCT02838394, "Dry Needling and Functional Improvement"): Brigham Young University randomized trial testing whether gluteal trigger point dry needling evokes segmental neuromodulation and reduces disability; terminated, 20-participant target, blunted-needle sham.

DNA Contamination

DNA contamination is the unintentional introduction of exogenous DNA into a sample, PCR reaction, or evidence item, also called adventitious introduction in forensic practice; distinguished from background DNA, controlled through segregation, clean rooms, negative controls, and elimination databases.

DNA ploidy analysis

DNA ploidy analysis is a cytometric method measuring the DNA content of individual cells by flow or image cytometry to detect aneuploidy in cancers and estimate the S-phase fraction.

Doctor Mike (Михаил Варшавский)

Doctor Mike, Mikhail Varshavski (Михаил Варшавский), is a Russian-born American board-certified family medicine physician and the most-followed doctor on social media, with over 30 million followers, a YouTube channel launched in 2017, and The Checkup podcast.

Doctor of Medicine

The Doctor of Medicine (MD or M.D.) is a professional doctoral degree in medicine granted in the United States and Canada after four years of accredited study.

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine

Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO), a US physician degree from COCA-accredited colleges founded on A.T. Still's 1874 philosophy; DOs are fully licensed physicians with OMT training, COMLEX licensure, and outcomes matching MDs.

Doctor of Pharmacy

Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD): the six-year entry-level professional doctorate for US pharmacists since 2000, ACPE-accredited under Standards 2025, with IPPE/APPE rotations and NAPLEX licensure; distinct from the PhD and adopted in countries such as Thailand and Japan.

DOMINO trial

DOMINO (Doxycycline versus Macrolides for Mycoplasma pneumoniae INfectiOn in Children) is a planned South Korean multicentre randomised trial, NCT07306234, testing first-line doxycycline versus azithromycin in 208 children aged 3–17 with suspected macrolide-resistant M. pneumoniae pneumonia.

Donor hepatectomy

Donor hepatectomy is the surgical removal of part of a living donor's liver for transplantation, balancing a graft large enough for the recipient against a remnant safe for the donor.

Donor insemination

Donor insemination is a fertility treatment using sperm from a donor instead of a partner, used when a male partner has no sperm or there is none.

Donor lymphocyte infusion

Donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI) is a cellular therapy in which lymphocytes from the original stem cell donor are infused after transplantation to treat or prevent relapse of blood cancers.

Door laminoplasty

Door laminoplasty, or open-door laminoplasty, is a posterior cervical spine operation that hinges the laminae open on one side to enlarge the spinal canal and decompress the cord.

Oct 20, 2026

Doppler Color Echocardiography

Doppler color echocardiography (color flow echocardiography, MeSH D018618) superimposes color-coded blood flow on gray-scale heart ultrasound in real time; pulsed-Doppler based, red/blue directional display, limited by Nyquist aliasing and angle dependence.

Doppler flowmetry

Doppler flowmetry is a noninvasive diagnostic method that measures blood flow velocity by detecting the Doppler frequency shift of ultrasound reflected from moving red blood cells.

Doppler optical coherence tomography

Doppler optical coherence tomography, also called optical Doppler tomography, is an imaging method combining OCT with Doppler shift measurement to quantify blood flow velocity in living tissue.

Doppler Pulsed Echocardiography

Pulsed Doppler echocardiography (pulsed-wave, PW Doppler) measures blood flow or tissue velocity at a selected sample volume using pulsed ultrasound; limited by the Nyquist limit and aliasing above roughly 1.5 to 2 m/s.

Doppler Pulsed Ultrasonography

Doppler pulsed ultrasonography, or pulsed-wave Doppler, is an ultrasound technique that measures blood-flow velocity at a specific depth, unlike continuous-wave Doppler, and is used in vascular and cardiac diagnosis.

Doppler ultrasonography

Doppler ultrasonography is an ultrasound technique that measures the frequency shift of sound waves reflected from moving blood cells, assessing blood flow noninvasively in arteries, veins, the heart, and pregnancy.

Oct 15, 2026

Doppler ultrasound

Doppler ultrasound is a medical imaging technique that measures the speed, direction, and amount of blood flow by bouncing sound waves off moving red blood cells.

Dora Richter

Dora Richter (1892–1966), Bohemian-born German trans woman, first known person to undergo complete male-to-female gender-affirming surgery: orchiectomy 1922, penectomy and vaginoplasty 1931 at Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Science, Berlin; survived the Nazi era, died in Allersberg, Bavaria.

Dorsal rhizotomy

Dorsal rhizotomy, also known as selective dorsal rhizotomy, is a neurosurgical procedure that divides sensory nerve rootlets to reduce spasticity, most often in children with cerebral palsy.

Dorsal root ganglion stimulation

Dorsal root ganglion stimulation is an implanted neuromodulation therapy for chronic focal neuropathic pain, FDA approved in 2016 for lower-limb complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS).

Dorsal slit

Dorsal slit (preputiotomy): a surgical incision through both foreskin layers at the penis's upper surface, relieving phimosis and paraphimosis and serving as a step in many circumcision techniques; quicker and less bloody than circumcision but cosmetically less uniform.