Human health and medicine

Continuous arterial spin labeling

Continuous arterial spin labeling (CASL) is a magnetic resonance perfusion technique that magnetically labels arterial blood water to quantify cerebral blood flow without contrast agents or radiation.

Continuous blood pressure monitoring

Continuous blood pressure monitoring is the beat-by-beat measurement of arterial pressure during surgery and critical care, with the invasive arterial catheter as the gold standard and noninvasive finger-cuff devices as alternatives.

Continuous EEG monitoring

Continuous EEG (cEEG) monitoring records brain electrical activity with synchronized video for hours to weeks in critically ill patients, the reference standard for detecting electrographic seizures.

Continuous erector spinae plane block

The continuous erector spinae plane block is a regional anesthesia technique using a catheter to infuse local anesthetic along the spine for chest and abdominal pain relief.

Continuous glucose monitoring

Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) is a wearable medical device that measures glucose under the skin every one to five minutes, guiding diabetes treatment with trend data.

Continuous kidney replacement therapy

Continuous kidney replacement therapy (CKRT, historically CRRT) is blood purification run for 24 hours or longer in critically ill patients with acute kidney injury, removing fluid and solutes slowly and continuously.

Continuous passive motion

Continuous passive motion (CPM) is a rehabilitation therapy in which a motorized machine moves a joint through a preset arc without muscular effort, used after joint surgery.

Continuous positive airway pressure

Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP): machine delivering mild constant air pressure through a mask to keep the airway open during sleep. Introduced by Colin Sullivan in 1981; standard treatment for obstructive sleep apnea, also used in preterm infants.

Continuous renal replacement therapy

Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT), or continuous RRT, is a set of dialysis-like filtration techniques run for hours to days in critically ill ICU patients with acute kidney injury.

Continuous suture

A continuous suture is a wound-closure technique using one strand of suture material for a series of stitches, tied at each end, chosen for rapid closure of long wounds.

Oct 15, 2026

Contour Next

Contour Next is a family of blood glucose monitoring systems, with meters and test strips made by Ascensia Diabetes Care, introduced in 2012 as the successor to Bayer's CONTOUR meters.

Contraceptive Devices

Contraceptive devices: physical products preventing pregnancy, including copper and hormonal IUDs, implants, condoms, diaphragms, and sterilization devices; effectiveness, WHO MEC/SPR safety guidance, and history from the 1909 Richter ring onward.

Contraceptive implant

Contraceptive implant (Nexplanon, formerly Implanon; predecessor Norplant): a single rod placed under the upper-arm skin releasing etonogestrel for 3 years, over 99% effective at preventing pregnancy but offering no STI protection.

Contract Services

Contract services, or contracting out, are services purchased from external providers under agreements specifying quantity, quality, price, and period; widely used in health care for support, clinical, and hospital management services, with mixed documented effects.

Contracted socket

Contracted socket (eye), also called socket contracture after enucleation or evisceration: shrinkage of anophthalmic orbital tissue with shallow fornices that prevents retention of an ocular prosthesis; graded by severity and treated with grafts, implants, and flaps.

Contracted urinary bladder

Contracted urinary bladder (ICD-11 GC00.2), also called inflammatory or small contracted bladder: an end-stage shrunken, noncompliant bladder, most often from genitourinary tuberculosis, treated with augmentation cystoplasty below 100 mL capacity.

Contraction of orbit

Contraction of orbit (眼眶收缩), ICD-11 9A24.0, a bony deformity of orbit defined as reduced orbital volume causing enophthalmos, globe malposition, and motility disturbance; causes include trauma, radiation fibrosis, and desmoplastic metastases.

Contracture of joint

Contracture of joint is a joint's inability to move through its full passive range of motion, caused by structural changes in tissues around or inside the joint.

Contracture of muscle

Contracture of muscle (ICD-11 FB32.4; ICD-10 M62.4) is fixed shortening of muscle or periarticular soft tissue limiting joint movement, caused mainly by immobility, fibrosis, and sarcomere loss, and distinguished from spasticity and cramps.

Contraindication

A contraindication is a condition, such as pregnancy or an allergy, that is a reason not to use a drug, procedure, or surgery because it may be harmful.

Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy

Contralateral prophylactic mastectomy (CPM) is the surgical removal of the cancer-free breast in a patient with unilateral breast cancer, cutting contralateral cancer risk by 90 to 96%.

Contrast (vision)

Contrast in vision is the difference in lightness or darkness between an object and its background; contrast sensitivity testing can detect eye diseases that standard acuity measurement misses.

Contrast echocardiography

Contrast echocardiography is cardiac ultrasound performed after intravenous injection of gas microbubbles that opacify the blood pool, used when up to 20% of echocardiograms have poor endocardial border definition.

Contrast Sensitivity

Contrast sensitivity is the ability of the visual system to detect small differences in brightness between an object and its background, measured clinically with tests like the Pelli-Robson chart.

Contrast-enhanced computed tomography

Contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT) is a CT technique in which intravenous iodinated contrast makes vessels, organs, and lesions visible, used for tumors, infection, and vascular disease.

Contrast-enhanced mammography

Contrast-enhanced mammography (CEM) is a dual-energy breast imaging technique that uses injected iodinated contrast to reveal tumor blood vessels, with sensitivity approaching MRI at lower cost.

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) is an imaging technique that injects gas microbubble contrast agents to image blood flow and tissue perfusion in real time during ultrasound.

Controlled before-after study

A controlled before-after study is a quasi-experimental design measuring outcomes before and after an intervention in both intervention and comparison groups, without randomization, to estimate the intervention's effect.

Controlled interrupted time series analysis

Controlled interrupted time series (CITS) analysis is a quasi-experimental design that evaluates health or policy interventions by comparing before-and-after trends between an exposed population and an unexposed control.