| asteroid | Resembling a star. Origin: G. Aster, star, + eidos, resemblance (05 Mar 2000) |
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| asteroid body | An eosinophilic inclusion resembling a star with delicate radiating lines, occurring in a vacuolated area of cytoplasm of a multinucleated giant cell; especially frequent in sarcoidosis, but occurs also in other granulomas, a structure that is characteristic of sporotrichosis when found in the skin or secondary lesions of this mycosis; in tissue, it surrounds the 3-to 5-um in diameter ovoid yeast of Sporothrix schenkii. (05 Mar 2000) |
| asteroid hyalosis | Numerous small spherical bodies ("snowball" opacities) in the corpus vitreum, visible ophthalmoscopically; an age change, usually unilateral, and not affecting vision. (05 Mar 2000) |
| asterolepis | <paleontology> A genus of fishes, some of which were eighteen or twenty feet long, found in a fossil state in the Old Red Sandstone. Origin: NL, fr. Gr. Star + scale. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| asterophyllite | <paleontology> A fossil plant from the coal formations of Europe and America, now regarded as the branchlets and foliage of calamites. Origin: Gr. Star + leaf. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |