| direct contamination | <dentistry> Direct contact with impurities or germs. (for example by a patient sneezing on the assistant.) (08 Jan 1998) |
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| radioactive contamination | <radiobiology> Radioactive substance dispersed in material or places where it is undesirable. (16 Dec 1997) |
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| contamination | The soiling or pollution by inferior material, as by the introduction of organisms into a wound or sewage into a stream. Origin: L. Contaminatio from con =together + tangere = to touch (18 Nov 1997) |
| cross contamination | <dentistry> Passing bacteria or viruses indirectly from one patient to another through the use of improper sterilisation procedures, unclean instruments, or recycling of products. (08 Jan 1998) |
| specimen contamination | <microscopy> A change in the specimen caused by the condensation upon it of residual vapours in the microscope under the influence of electron bombardment. (05 Aug 1998) |
| equipment contamination | The presence of an infectious agent on instruments, prostheses, or other inanimate articles. (12 Dec 1998) |
| food contamination | The presence in food of harmful, unpalatable, or otherwise objectionable foreign substances, e.g. Chemicals, microorganisms or diluents, before, during, or after processing or storage. (12 Dec 1998) |
| non-direct transmission | <epidemiology> A mode of transmission that differs in some mysterious way from indirect transmission. (05 Dec 1998) |
| direct | 1. Straight, in a straight line. 2. Performed immediately and without the intervention of subsidiary means. Origin: L. Directus (18 Nov 1997) |
| direct acrylic restoration | A direct resin restoration of autopolymerizing acrylic. (05 Mar 2000) |
| direct agglutination | A general term for techniques which use the agglutination (macroscopic clumping) of particulate reagents as an indicator of the presence of an antigen-antibody reaction. Examples (haemagglutination, latex agglutination and coagglutination) follow. (05 Mar 2000) |
| direct B-cell | Lymphocytes responding to a small range of antigens by antibody production without any requirement for T-cells. The antigens include flagellin and pokeweed mitogen. (18 Nov 1997) |
| direct bilirubin | Conjugated bilirubin = Direct bilirubin. Bilirubin that has been chemically attached to a glucuronide in the liver. The bilirubin that is excreted into the bile by the liver and stored in the gallbladder or transferred to the duodenum. Normal direct bilirubin is 0 to 0.3 mg/dl. Greater than normal values can be seen in bile duct obstruction, cirrhosis, Crigler-Najjar syndrome, Dubin-Johnson syndrome and hepatitis. (27 Sep 1997) |
| direct bone impression | An impression of denuded bone, used in the construction of subperiosteal denture implants. (05 Mar 2000) |
| direct composite resin restoration | A direct restoration made by inserting a plastic mix of auto or light-polymerised resins in a cavity prepared in a tooth. Synonym: direct composite resin restoration. (05 Mar 2000) |
| direct Coombs' test | A test for detecting sensitised erythrocytes in erythroblastosis foetalis and in cases of acquired immune haemolytic anaemia: the patient's erythrocytes are washed with saline to remove serum and unattached antibody protein, then incubated with Coombs' anti-human globulin (usually serum from a rabbit or goat previously immunised with human globulin); after incubation, the system is centrifuged and examined for agglutination, which indicates the presence of so-called incomplete or univalent antibodies on the surface of the erythrocytes. (05 Mar 2000) |