| rubber-bulb syringe | A syringe with a hollow rubber bulb and cannula provided with a check valve, used to obtain a jet of air or water. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| rubbing alcohol | An alcoholic mixture intended for external use; it usually contains 70% by volume of absolute alcohol or isopropyl alcohol; the remainder consists of water, denaturants (with and without coal tar colours), and perfume oils; used as a rubefacient for muscle and joint aches and pains. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rubble | 1. Water-worn or rough broken stones; broken bricks, etc, used in coarse masonry, or to fill up between the facing courses of walls. "Inside [the wall] there was rubble or mortar." (Jowett (Thucyd)) 2. Rough stone as it comes from the quarry; also, a quarryman's term for the upper fragmentary and decomposed portion of a mass of stone; brash. 3. <geology> A mass or stratum of fragments or rock lying under the alluvium, and derived from the neighboring rock. 4. The whole of the bran of wheat before it is sorted into pollard, bran, etc. Coursed rubble, rubble masonry in which courses are formed by leveling off the work at certain heights. Origin: From an assumed Old French dim. Of robe See Rubbish. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| rubeanic acid | Dithiooxamide, which forms complete dark greenish-black complexes with copper in alkaline ethanolic solution; used histochemically for demonstrating pathologic copper deposits, as in Wilson's disease; also reacts with cobalt and nickel. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rubedo | A temporary redness of the skin. Origin: L. Redness, fr. Ruber, red (05 Mar 2000) |
| rubefacient | Making red. <alchemy> An external application which produces redness of the skin. Origin: L. Rubefaciens, p.pr. Of rubefacere = to make red; rubere to be red + facere = to make. (11 Mar 1998) |
| rubefaction | Erythema of the skin caused by local application of a counterirritant. Origin: see rubefacient (05 Mar 2000) |
| rubella | <disease, virology> An acute, usually benign, infectious disease caused by a togavirus and most often affecting children and nonimmune young adults, in which the virus enters the respiratory tract via droplet nuclei and spreads to the lymphatic system. It is characterised by a slight cold, sore throat and fever, followed by enlargement of the postauricular, suboccipital and cervical lymph nodes and the appearances of a fine pink rash that begins on the head and spreads to become generalised. Synonym: German measles, rubeola. Origin: L. Rubellus = reddish, ruber = red (17 Dec 1997) |
| rubella cataract | Embryopathic cataract secondary to intrauterine rubella infection. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rubella HI test | A haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test for rubella, often performed routinely as part of a prenatal workup of the pregnant woman; the presence of any detectable HI titre in the absence of disease indicates previous infection and immunity to reinfection; if HI antibody is undetected, the patient is considered potentially susceptible and is followed accordingly. See: haemagglutination inhibition. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rubella immunization | The standard MMR vaccine is given to prevent measles, mumps and rubella (german measles). The mmr vaccine is now given in two dosages. The first should be given at12-15 months of age. The second vaccination should be given at 4-6 years (or, alternatively, 11-12 years) of age. most colleges require proof of a second measles or mmr vaccination prior to entrance. Most children should receive mmr vaccinations. Exceptions may include children born with an inability to fight off infection, some children with cancer, on treatment with radiation or drugs for cancer, on long term steroids (cortisone). People with severe allergic reactions to eggs or the drug neomycin should probably avoid the mmr vaccine. Pregnant women should wait until after delivery before being immunised with mmr. People with HIV or aids should normally receive mmr vaccine. Measles, mumps, and rubella vaccines may be administered as individual shots, if necessary, or as a measles-rubella combination. (12 Dec 1998) |
| rubella retinopathy | Peripheral pigmentary retinal changes in congenital rubella, not affecting visual function. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rubella syndrome, congenital | Transplacental infection of the foetus with rubella usually in the first trimester of pregnancy, as a consequence of maternal infection, resulting in various developmental abnormalities in the newborn infant. They include cardiac and ocular lesions, deafness, microcephaly, mental retardation, and generalised growth retardation. (12 Dec 1998) |
| rubella vaccine | A live attenuated virus vaccine of duck embryo or human diploid cell tissue culture origin, used for routine immunization of children and for immunization of nonpregnant adolescent and adult females of childbearing age who are unimmunised and do not have serum antibodies to rubella. Children are usually immunised with measles-mumps-rubella combination vaccine. (12 Dec 1998) |
| rubella virus | The type (and only) species of rubivirus causing acute infection in humans, primarily children and young adults. Humans are the only natural host. A live, attenuated vaccine is available for prophylaxis. (12 Dec 1998) |