Human health and medicine

Reactive attachment disorder

Reactive attachment disorder (RAD), ICD-11 code 6B44, is a rare childhood diagnosis of emotionally withdrawn, inhibited attachment behavior after severe neglect; DSM-5 separates it from disinhibited social engagement disorder, and foster care intervention reduces its signs.

Reactive hypoglycemia

Reactive hypoglycemia (postprandial hypoglycemia) is low blood sugar occurring 2–4 hours after a meal, distinct from fasting hypoglycemia. Causes include diabetes drugs, alcohol, and bariatric surgery; managed by diet and Whipple's triad diagnosis.

Oct 20, 2026

Reactive plasmacytic hyperplasia

Reactive plasmacytic hyperplasia (reactive plasmacytosis), ICD-11 2B32.1, is a benign polytypic plasma cell increase in blood, marrow, or nodes caused by infection, AITL, drugs, malignancy, or autoimmunity, distinct from plasmacytoma.

Reading Hospital

Reading Hospital (Reading Hospital and Medical Center) is a 697-bed nonprofit acute care hospital in West Reading, Pennsylvania, flagship of Tower Health. Founded 1867-1868 as the Reading Dispensary; Level I trauma center since 2005, Level III NICU, Drexel-affiliated teaching hospital.

Ready-to-use therapeutic food

Ready-to-use therapeutic food (RUTF) is an energy-dense, vitamin-enriched paste, typically peanut and milk based, used to treat severe acute malnutrition in children aged 6 to 59 months at home.

Reagent Strips

Reagent strips are chemically impregnated strips for detecting substances, chiefly urine dipsticks and blood glucose strips; history runs from Maumené's 1850 wool strip through Pavy and Oliver's 1880s dry chemistry to Clinistix (1956) and Multistix.

Real-time MRI

Real-time MRI is magnetic resonance imaging fast enough to capture moving structures, such as the beating heart or vocal tract during speech, as a continuous movie without breath-holding or ECG gating.

Reality therapy

Reality therapy is a counseling and psychotherapy method developed by William Glasser, built on choice theory and the WDEP system of wants, doing, evaluation, and planning.

Oct 20, 2026

REALITY trial (NCT02850107)

REALITY (NCT02850107), the VIVA REALITY study, was a single-arm trial of directional atherectomy before paclitaxel drug-coated balloon angioplasty in 102 patients with long, calcified femoropopliteal lesions: 76.7% 12-month patency, 8.8% provisional stenting.

Reamer-irrigator-aspirator

The reamer-irrigator-aspirator (RIA) is a surgical system that reams the long-bone canal while irrigating and aspirating debris, lowering embolic load and collecting autologous bone graft.

ReArm trial

ReArm (NCT04291573) is a French quadruple-blinded randomized trial at Montpellier and Nimes testing whether anodal HD-tDCS (2 mA, 20 min) added to 3-week virtual reality therapy improves paretic arm recovery in chronic stroke; primary outcome WMFT; status completed, no results posted.

Rebamipide

Rebamipide (OPC-12759, Mucosta) is a quinolinone gastroprotective anti-ulcer drug from Otsuka, launched in Japan in 1990, also approved as 2% ophthalmic suspension for dry eye; it induces prostaglandins and scavenges radicals.

Rebisufligene etisparvovec hopf

Rebisufligene etisparvovec hopf, marketed as FAYUVI, is a one-time AAV9 gene therapy approved by the FDA in September 2026 to treat Sanfilippo syndrome type A in children.

Rebound tonometry

Rebound tonometry is a handheld method of measuring intraocular pressure by bouncing a lightweight disposable probe off the cornea, usable in children and by glaucoma patients at home.

Reboxetine

Reboxetine (Edronax) is a selective noradrenaline reuptake inhibitor antidepressant approved in Europe in 1997 but rejected in the US; a 2010 meta-analysis found it ineffective versus placebo and SSRIs, though a 2011 MHRA review kept a positive benefit-risk balance.

Recanalization

Recanalization is the reopening of an occluded blood vessel, the central goal of stroke reperfusion therapy, achieved through thrombolysis or mechanical thrombectomy within hours of onset.

Recaticimab injection

Recaticimab (艾心安, AiXinAn; SHR-1209) is a long-acting humanized IgG1 anti-PCSK9 monoclonal antibody with an Fc YTE mutation, approved in China in 2025 for hypercholesterolemia and mixed dyslipidemia, dosed every 4 to 12 weeks.

RECCE 327 topical gel (R327G)

RECCE 327 topical gel (R327G) is a synthetic acrolein polymer anti-infective gel from Recce Pharmaceuticals, in registrational Phase 3 trials for diabetic foot infections in Indonesia and Australia, with Phase II ABSSSI efficacy of 93%.

Receptive aphasia

Receptive aphasia, also called Wernicke's or sensory aphasia, is a fluent aphasia with impaired comprehension, naming, and repetition, caused by damage to Wernicke's area in the left temporal lobe, first described by Carl Wernicke in 1874.

Receptor antagonist

Receptor antagonist: a ligand that binds a receptor without activating it, blocking agonists. Includes competitive (surmountable, e.g. naloxone, antihistamines) and non-competitive (insurmountable, e.g. phenoxybenzamine) types, plus allosteric antagonists.

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa inversa

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa inversa (RDEB-I, RDEB-Inv), a rare autosomal recessive COL7A1 blistering disorder: generalized infantile blistering shifts to flexural and mucosal sites, with specific glycine/arginine collagen VII substitutions and 23% SCC risk by age 50.

Recessive X-linked ichthyosis

Recessive X-linked ichthyosis (XLI, steroid sulfatase deficiency, MIM 308100) is an X-linked recessive skin disorder from STS gene deletions, causing dark polygonal scales in about 1 in 2,000–6,000 males, with corneal opacities, cryptorchidism, and ADHD associations.

Rechallenge (pharmacology)

Rechallenge is the readministration of a drug suspected of causing an adverse reaction, after the drug was stopped, to determine whether the reaction recurs; it is rarely ethically justified.

Recipient Vessels

Recipient vessels (host or target vessels) are the arteries and veins at a flap recipient site anastomosed to transferred tissue in microsurgery; typical choices include superior thyroid, internal mammary, and thoracodorsal vessels.

Reciprocal inhibition

Reciprocal inhibition is a behavioral therapy principle, defined by Joseph Wolpe in 1954, in which anxiety is weakened by pairing feared stimuli with an incompatible response like deep muscle relaxation.

Reckitt

Reckitt (Reckitt Benckiser Group plc, LSE: RKT) is a British consumer health and hygiene company formed in 1999 by the merger of Reckitt & Colman and Benckiser NV; £14.2bn 2025 revenue, brands include Lysol, Dettol, Finish, Mucinex, Durex.

Recombinant 8 syndrome

Recombinant 8 syndrome, or San Luis Valley syndrome, is a rare chromosomal disorder from a parental pericentric inversion of chromosome 8, causing heart defects, intellectual disability, and craniofacial features, mainly in Hispanic families of the Southwestern United States.

Recombinant bovine basic fibroblast growth factor (topical)

Recombinant bovine basic fibroblast growth factor (rb-bFGF, 贝复济/贝复新) is a topical E. coli-derived wound-healing biologic for burns, ulcers, and fresh wounds, first approved in China in 1998.

Recombinant enzyme from Jiangsu Beijietai (bomitase alfa)

Bemitltenase alfa (波米泰酶α, STSP-0601, trade name Bojia'ning 博佳凝) is a Russell's viper venom-derived coagulation factor X activator from Jiangsu BioJeTay (Staidson subsidiary), conditionally approved by NMPA in June 2026 for bleeding in hemophilia A/B adults with inhibitors >5 BU.