| NM | near-miss; neomycin; neuromedin; neuromuscular; neutrophil migration; nictitating membrane; nitrogen... |
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| NMBA | neuromuscular blocking agent |
| NMC | National Medical Care; Naval Medical Center; neuromuscular control; nonmotor condition; nucleus reti... |
| NMES | neuromuscular electrical stimulation |
| NMJ | neuromuscular junction |
| neuromuscular blocking agent | A group of drugs that prevent motor nerve endings from exciting skeletal muscle. They act either by competing for the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, (like D-tubocurarine, mivacurium and pancuronium), or by first stimulating the postjunctional muscle membrane and subsequently desensitizing the muscle endplates to the acetylcholine (like succinylcholine or decamethonium); used in surgery to produce paralysis and facilitate manipulation of muscles. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| neuromuscular blocking agents | Drugs that interrupt transmission of nerve impulses at the skeletal neuromuscular junction. They can be of two types, competitive, stabilizing blockers (neuromuscular nondepolarising agents) or noncompetitive, depolarising agents (neuromuscular depolarising agents). Both prevent acetylcholine from triggering the muscle contraction and they are used as anaesthesia adjuvants, as relaxants during electroshock, in convulsive states, etc. (12 Dec 1998) |
| neuromuscular cell | A cell of a lower metazoan organism that is both sensitive and contractile. (05 Mar 2000) |
| neuromuscular depolarising agents | Drugs that interrupt transmission at the skeletal neuromuscular junction by causing sustained depolarisation of the motor end plate. These agents are primarily used as adjuvants in surgical anaesthesia to cause skeletal muscle relaxation. (12 Dec 1998) |
| neuromuscular junction | A chemical synapse between a motoneuron and a muscle fibre. Synonym: motor end plate. (18 Nov 1997) |
| neuromuscular nondepolarising agents | Drugs that interrupt transmission at the skeletal neuromuscular junction without causing depolarisation of the motor end plate. They prevent acetylcholine from triggering muscle contraction and are used as muscle relaxants during electroshock treatments, in convulsive states, and as anaesthesia adjuvants. (12 Dec 1998) |
| neuromuscular relaxant | An agent, e.g., curare or succinylcholine, that produces relaxation of striated muscle by interruption of transmission of nervous impulses at the myoneural junction. (05 Mar 2000) |
| neuromuscular spindle | A fusiform end organ in skeletal muscle in which afferent and a few efferent nerve fibres terminate; it contains from 3 to 10 striated muscle fibres (intrafusal fibres) that are much smaller than the ordinary muscle fibres, are separated from them by a capsule that encloses the organ, and are innervated by the thin axon of a gamma motoneuron (gamma motor fibre); the sensory endings that occur on the intrafusal fibres are either annulospiral or flower spray endings; this sensory end organ is particularly sensitive to passive stretch of the muscle in which it is enclosed. Synonym: Kuhne's spindle, muscle spindle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| neuromuscular system | The muscles of the body collectively and the nerves supplying them. (05 Mar 2000) |
| nondepolarising neuromuscular blocking agent | A compound that paralyzes skeletal muscle primarily by inhibiting transmission of nerve impulses at the neuromuscular junction rather than by affecting the membrane potention of motor endplate or muscle fibres. (05 Mar 2000) |