| world health | The concept pertaining to the health status of inhabitants of the world. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| World Health Organisation | <organisation> A United Nations agency dealing with issues concerning health and disease around the globe. For cancer, the W.H.O. Has an interesting programme in prevention and palliative care. Acronym: WHO (26 Mar 1998) |
| world health organization | A specialised agency of the united nations designed as a coordinating authority on international health work; its aim is to promote the attainment of the highest possible level of health by all peoples. (12 Dec 1998) |
| New World leishmaniasis | A grave disease caused by Leishmania braziliensis braziliensis, endemic in southern Mexico and Central and South America, except for the equatorial region of Chile; the organism does not invade the viscera, and the disease is limited to the skin and mucous membranes, the lesions resembling the sores of cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. Mexicana or L. Tropica; the chancrous sores heal after a time, but some months or years later, fungating and eroding forms of ulceration may appear on the tongue and buccal or nasal mucosa; many variants of the disease exist, marked by differences in distribution, vector, epidemiology, and pathology, which suggest that it may in fact be caused by a number of closely related aetiological agents. See: espundia. Synonym: American leishmaniasis, leishmaniasis americana, nasopharyngeal leishmaniasis, New World leishmaniasis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Old World leishmaniasis | Infection with promastigotes (leptomonads) of Leishmania tropica and of leishmaniasis major inoculated into the skin by the bite of an infected sandfly, Phlebotomus (commonly P. Papatasi); it is endemic in parts of Asia Minor, northern Africa, and India, and is known by innumerable names, each indicating its locality (e.g., Aleppo, Baghdad, Delhi, or Jericho boil; Aden ulcer; Biskra button); the ulcer begins as a papule that enlarges to a nodule and then breaks down into an ulcer. Two distinctive clinical and epidemiological diseases are recognised, the more common and widespread zoonotic rural disease with a moist acute form, caused by L. Major, with reservoir rodent hosts; and an urban, anthroponotic, dry, chronic form of leishmaniasis caused by leishmaniasis tropica, without a reservoir host, and now largely controlled. See: zoonotic cutaneous leishmaniasis, anthroponotic cutaneous leishmaniasis. Synonym: juccuya, Old World leishmaniasis, tropical sore. (05 Mar 2000) |
| retrospective studies | Studies used to test aetiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons. (12 Dec 1998) |
| pharmalogical studies | <pharmacology> Studies to assess the potential harmful or other effects of drugs (16 Dec 1997) |
| clinical studies | <pharmacology> Human studies that are designed to measure the safety, efficacy, and appropriate dosage of a new drug or biological. Clinical studies routinely involve the use of a placebo group that is given an inactive substance that looks like the test product. (14 Nov 1997) |
| cohort studies | Studies in which subsets of a defined population are identified. These groups may or may not be exposed to factors hypothesised to influence the probability of the occurrence of a particular disease or other outcome. Cohorts are defined populations which, as a whole, are followed in an attempt to determine distinguishing subgroup characteristics. (12 Dec 1998) |
| combination studies | <pharmacology> Studies in which a new drug is evaluated in combination with existing drugs. (09 Jan 1998) |
| multicenter studies | Controlled studies which are planned and carried out by several cooperating institutions to assess certain variables and outcomes in specific patient populations, for example, a multicenter study of congenital anomalies in children. (12 Dec 1998) |
| multivariate studies | The use of statistical techniques for the simultaneous investigations of the influence of several variables. (05 Mar 2000) |
| preclinical studies | <pharmacology> Studies in which a drug is tested on animals and in other non-human test systems. Safety information from such studies are used to support an investigational new drug application. (14 Nov 1997) |
| sampling studies | Studies in which a number of subjects are selected from all subjects in a defined population. Conclusions based on sample results may be attributed only to the population sampled. (12 Dec 1998) |
| prospective studies | Observation of a population for a sufficient number of persons over a sufficient number of years to generate incidence or mortality rates subsequent to the selection of the study group. (12 Dec 1998) |