Human health and medicine

Postsurgical lordosis

Postsurgical lordosis (postprocedural lordosis, ICD-11 FC01.4, ICD-10-AM M96.4) is surgically induced abnormal spinal lordotic curvature, typically loss of lumbar lordosis after fusion, causing flatback syndrome.

Posttransplant acute limbic encephalitis

Posttransplant acute limbic encephalitis (PALE) is a rare non-paraneoplastic limbic encephalitis after allogeneic HSCT, causing amnesia, confusion, and seizures 2-6 weeks post-transplant, usually linked to HHV-6.

Postural Balance

Postural balance, also called postural equilibrium, is the stable state achieved when body mass is ideally distributed, keeping the body steady while sitting, standing, or walking.

Postural drainage

Postural drainage is a physical therapy technique that positions a patient so gravity moves mucus from lung segments toward the larger airways, used in cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, and COPD.

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), chronic orthostatic intolerance: standing raises heart rate ≥30 bpm (≥40 in ages 12–19) without orthostatic hypotension; mechanisms neuropathic, hypovolemic, hyperadrenergic; no FDA-approved drugs.

Posturography

Posturography is a clinical method measuring postural control while standing, recording sway on a force platform to evaluate balance disorders; forms include static and computerized dynamic posturography.

Potassium tri iodide

Potassium triiodide (KI3, Lugol's iodine) is the potassium salt of the linear triiodide ion I3-, formed when iodine dissolves in potassium iodide solution; CAS 12298-68-9, UNII T66M6Y3KSA, stable mainly as a dark brown monohydrate.

Potassium-sparing diuretic

Potassium-sparing diuretics (amiloride, triamterene, spironolactone, eplerenone, finerenone) are weak diuretics acting in the collecting duct via ENaC blockade or mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism, sparing potassium but risking hyperkalemia; used in heart failure, resistant hypertension, and ascites.

Potato starch

Potato starch, starch extracted from Solanum tuberosum tubers; third-largest starch after maize and wheat. Raw form is type II resistant starch (B-type polymorph); used in food, paper, textiles, pharma.

Poto and Cabengo

Poto and Cabengo: names Grace and Virginia Kennedy, San Diego identical twins born 1970, gave each other in a private language used until about age eight; also Jean-Pierre Gorin's 1979 documentary about them.

Potocki-Shaffer syndrome

Potocki-Shaffer syndrome (proximal 11p deletion syndrome, P11pDS, OMIM 601224) is a rare contiguous gene deletion syndrome at chromosome 11p11.2 causing parietal foramina, multiple exostoses, intellectual disability, and craniofacial anomalies via EXT2, ALX4, and PHF21A haploinsufficiency.

Pott's disease

Pott's disease (spinal tuberculosis, tuberculous spondylitis) is TB of the vertebrae spread from the lungs, causing vertebral collapse, kyphosis, cold abscesses, and paraplegia; treated with multidrug chemotherapy and selected surgery.

Pouchitis

Pouchitis, also called ileal pouch inflammation, is non-specific inflammation of the ileal reservoir after ileal pouch-anal anastomosis, mainly in ulcerative colitis patients. Affects about 32% of UC pouch patients, treated with antibiotics, probiotics, and biologics.

Pouchoscopy

Pouchoscopy is the endoscopic examination of the ileal pouch after ileal pouch–anal anastomosis (IPAA) surgery, the primary diagnostic test for pouch disorders, above all pouchitis, with biopsy when needed.

Poultice

Poultice (cataplasm): a soft, moist mass of herbs, clay, bread, or similar material applied to the skin for soothing, drainage, or wound care; distinguished from a compress, still studied in trials, and not a substitute for medical treatment of infected wounds.

Poverty of speech

Poverty of speech (alogia, ICD-11 MB23.K) is a negative symptom of schizophrenia: reduced spontaneous speech or content, distinguished from aphasia and mutism, rated by SANS and measurable by speech analysis.

Povidone-iodine

Povidone-iodine (PVP-I, Betadine) is a water-soluble iodophor antiseptic complexing iodine with polyvinylpyrrolidone, introduced in the 1950s; broadest antimicrobial spectrum among common antiseptics, no observed resistance, used in surgical skin prep and ophthalmic antisepsis.

Povorcitinib

Povorcitinib (INCB054707, Povofortay) is Incyte's oral, highly selective JAK1 inhibitor (about 50-fold over JAK2) with positive phase 3 results and regulatory filings for hidradenitis suppurativa and vitiligo.

Power Balance

Power Balance is an American brand of hologram-embedded silicone wristbands founded in 2007 by Troy and Josh Rodarmel, claiming to improve balance, strength, and flexibility; controlled trials found no effect and regulators forced corrective advertising.

Power Doppler ultrasound

Power Doppler ultrasound is a Doppler imaging mode that maps integrated signal power to brightness rather than velocity, detecting slow flow and tissue perfusion with little angle dependence and no aliasing.

Power nap

Power nap: a short 10-30 minute daytime sleep, also called a catnap, kept in light N1-N2 sleep to boost alertness and mood while avoiding slow-wave sleep and sleep inertia; best taken in the early afternoon.

Power short duration ablation

Power short duration ablation, also called HPSD ablation, is a catheter technique using higher power for shorter applications to isolate pulmonary veins in atrial fibrillation.

Pozelimab

Pozelimab (Veopoz, pozelimab-bbfg, REGN3918) is Regeneron's fully human anti-C5 IgG4P monoclonal antibody, FDA-approved August 18, 2023 as the first treatment for CHAPLE disease (CD55-deficient protein-losing enteropathy), and in phase 3 trials with cemdisiran for PNH and myasthenia gravis.

Poziotinib

Poziotinib (HM781-36B, NOV-120101) is an oral irreversible pan-HER tyrosine kinase inhibitor developed for EGFR and HER2 exon 20 insertion-mutant cancers; ZENITH20 showed modest efficacy and marked toxicity, and it was never FDA approved.

Poznan University of Medical Sciences

Poznan University of Medical Sciences (Uniwersytet Medyczny im. Karola Marcinkowskiego w Poznaniu, PUMS), a public medical university in Poznan, Poland; independent since 1950, university since 2007, first Polish school teaching medicine in English (1993).

PPARG-related familial partial lipodystrophy

PPARG-related familial partial lipodystrophy (FPLD3, OMIM 604367) is a rare autosomal dominant lipodystrophy from loss-of-function PPARG variants, causing limb lipoatrophy, truncal fat gain, diabetes, and hypertriglyceridemia.

Oct 20, 2026

PPB study

PPB study: the International PPB/DICER1 Registry and the NCI DICER1-Related Tumor Predisposition Study (NCT00565903), which established DICER1 germline variants as the cause of the pleuropulmonary blastoma familial cancer syndrome.

PPC trial

PPC trial refers to clinical trials of Patient Priorities Care, an approach aligning healthcare with older adults' health priorities (outcome goals and care preferences), tested in the 2019 JAMA Internal Medicine nonrandomized trial, a 2024 Cleveland Clinic trial, and VA randomized trial NCT04922320.