PDR
Physicians’ Desk Reference (please see entry to Physicians’ Desk Reference). PDR less frequently stands for “postdelivery room”.
Read Also:
- Peak expiratory flow
Abbreviated PEF. The maximum airflow during a forced expiration beginning with the lungs fully inflated. The PEF is reduced in proportion to the severity of the airway obstruction, as in asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
- Peak-flow meter
This hand-held device measures air flow (how fast air is blown out of the lungs). Patients can use peak-flow meters to measure their own air flow regularly. The use of a peak-flow meter allows patients to obtain a much earlier indication of an oncoming attack, for example, of exercise-induced asthma, a type of asthma typically […]
- Peanut allergy
An allergic reaction to peanuts, the leading cause of anaphylaxis, the most severe and potentially life threatening allergic reaction, and the leading cause of death from food allergy in the US and other Western nations. The prevalence of peanut allergy is increasing. This increase may be due to the exposure of infants with rashes to […]
- Peccant
Unhealthy. Causing illness or disease. “…the subtile parts of the tobacco in inspiration are carried into the trachea and lungs, where they loosen the peccant humours adhering thereto, and promote expectoration.” (From the entry to tobacco in the First Edition of the Encyclop�dia Britannica, 1771) The word peccant comes from the Latin peccans, from peccare […]
- Pecs
Slang for the pectoral muscles, muscles of the “anterior chest” (the front of the chest). The Latin “pectus” means “chest.”