| automatic | 1. Having an inherent power of action or motion. "Nothing can be said to be automatic." (Sir H. Davy) 2. Pertaining to, or produced by, an automaton; of the nature of an automaton; self-acting or self-regulating under fixed conditions; especially. Applied to machinery or devices in which certain things formerly or usually done by hand are done by the machine or device itself; as, the automatic feed of a lathe; automatic gas lighting; an automatic engine or switch; an automatic mouse. 3. Not voluntary; not depending on the will; mechanical; as, automatic movements or functions. "Unconscious or automatic reasoning." (H. Spenser) Automatic arts, such economic arts or manufacture as are carried on by self-acting machinery. Origin: Cf. F. Automatique. See Automaton. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| automatic audiometer | An audiometer that is operated by the patient, enabling him to control the intensity of the tone presented to him and thus track his own hearing thresholds. (05 Mar 2000) |
| automatic audiometry | An audiometric technique using an automatic audiometer, which enables the patient to track his own hearing thresholds by controlling the intensity of the signal being presented to him, while the audiometer sweeps through the audible frequency range. (05 Mar 2000) |
| automatic beat | In contrast to forced beat, an ectopic beat that arises de novo and is not precipitated by the preceding beat; thus escaped and parasystolic beat's are automatic. Synonym: automatic contraction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| automatic condenser | A mechanically or electrically activated device used to provide condensing pressure in the placement of amalgam or gold foil in a cavity preparation. Synonym: automatic condenser. (05 Mar 2000) |
| automatic contraction | In contrast to forced beat, an ectopic beat that arises de novo and is not precipitated by the preceding beat; thus escaped and parasystolic beat's are automatic. Synonym: automatic contraction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| automatic data processing | Data processing largely performed by automatic means. (12 Dec 1998) |
| automatic epilepsy | <neurology> Seizures with elaborate and multiple sensory, motor, and/or psychic components. A common feature is the clouding of consciousness and amnesia for the event. Some clinical manifestations may include more complex behaviours like burst of anger, emotional outbursts, fear or automatisms. The EEG often reveals spike discharges in the temporal lobe during sleep. (02 Jan 1998) |
| automatic plugger | A mechanically or electrically activated device used to provide condensing pressure in the placement of amalgam or gold foil in a cavity preparation. Synonym: automatic condenser. (05 Mar 2000) |
| food dispensers, automatic | Mechanical food dispensing machines. (12 Dec 1998) |
| artificial pacemaker | Any device that substitutes for the normal pacemaker and controls the rhythm of the organ; especially an electronic cardiac pacemaker, which may be implanted in the chest, with electrodes attached to the external cardiac surface, or passed through the venous circulation into the right side of the heart (pervenous pacemaker). (05 Mar 2000) |
| cardiac pacemaker | An electrical device which delivers a small stimulant shock to the heart to effect cardiac contraction at a pre-determined rate. Many of today's pacemakers have two main components: the electrodes and the transducer (pulse generator). The electrodes are wires which are placed into the circulatory system and make physical contact with the heart muscle. A small electrical discharge from the pacemaker electrode stimulates the muscular wall of the heart to contract, thus pumping blood in an organised fashion. The transducer is a small device, usually implanted under the skin, that generates the electrical discharge at a pre-determined frequency. Transducers can monitor your heart's rate of contraction and deliver an electrical shock only when the heart is going too slow. (27 Sep 1997) |
| pacemaker | 1. <apparatus, physiology> An object or substance that influences the rate at which a certain phenomenon occurs, often used alone to indicate the natural cardiac pacemaker or an artificial cardiac pacemaker. 2. <biochemistry> A substance whose rate of reaction sets the pace for a series of interrelated reactions. (24 Mar 1998) |
| pacemaker, artificial | A device designed to stimulate, by electric impulses, contraction of the heart muscles. It may be temporary (external) or permanent (internal or internal-external). (12 Dec 1998) |
| pacemaker failure | Failure of an artificial pacemaker to generate or deliver effective stimuli to the myocardium. (05 Mar 2000) |