Spasticity
A state of increased tone of a muscle (and an increase in the deep tendon reflexes). For example, with spasticity of the legs (spastic paraplegia) there is an increase in tone of the leg muscles so they feel tight and rigid and the knee jerk reflex is exaggerated.
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- SPD calcinosis
Striopallidodentate (SPD) calcinosis, a condition first described in 1930 by T. Fahr and therefore called Fahr syndrome, is a genetic (inherited) neurological disorder characterized by abnormal deposits of calcium in certain of areas of the brain (including the basal ganglia and the cerebral cortex). Symptoms may include motor function deterioration, dementia, mental retardation, spastic paralysis, […]
- Special pathogen
A highly infectious agent that produces severe disease in humans. Special pathogens include the viruses that cause several hemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, Lassa fever, and hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, and other recently identified and emerging viral diseases, such as Nipah virus encephalitis. These viruses are RNA-coded (often negative-stranded or ambisense in coding strategy), […]
- Specific developmental disorder
A disorder that selectively affects one area of development, sparing essentially all other areas of development. For example, dysgraphia is one type of specific developmental disorder. In dysgraphia there is inability to write legibly. Problems in dysgraphia may include fine-motor muscle control of the hands and/or processing difficulties. Sometimes occupational therapy is helpful. Most successful […]
- Specific-pathogen free
A term that is applied to animals reared for use in laboratory experiments which indicates that the animals are known to be free of germs that can cause disease. Abbreviated SPF.
- Specificity
1. The quality of being specific as, for example, she showed the use of specificity in her diagnosis. 2. The proportion of persons without a disease who are correctly identified by a test. The specificity is the number of true negative results divided by the sum of the numbers of true negative plus false positive […]