| 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) |
|---|---|
| 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) |
| 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) |
| M concentration | The maximum number of bacterial cells which can be produced in a unit volume of growth medium. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration | Hgb/Hct;the average haemoglobin concentration in a given volume of packed red cells, calculated from the haemoglobin therein and the haematocrit, in erythrocyte indices. (05 Mar 2000) |
| peak plasma drug concentration | <pharmacology> The highest level of drug that can be obtained in the blood usually following multiple doses. (09 Oct 1997) |
| concentration | 1. Increase in strength by evaporation. 2. <chemistry> The ratio of the mass or volume of a solute to the mass or volume of the solution or solvent. Origin: L. Concentratio (18 Nov 1997) |
| concentration camps | Facilities in which war or political prisoners are confined. (12 Dec 1998) |
| concentration cell | <physiology> An electrochemical cell in which the two compartments contain the same solutions, but at different concentrations. (05 Jan 1998) |
| concentration-effect curve | <pharmacology> This is a graph produced to show the relationship between the exposure concentration of a drug or other foreign chemical and the magnitude of the graded effect that it produces. (05 Jan 1998) |
| concentration gradient | <chemistry> A column of liquid in which the density varies continually with position, usually as a consequence of variation of concentration of a solute. Such gradients may be established by progressive mixing of solutions of different density as for example: sucrose gradients) or by centrifuge induced redistribution of solute (as for caesium chloride gradients). Density gradients are widely used for centrifugal and gravity induced separations of cells, organelles and macromolecules. The separations may exploit density differences between particles or primarily differences in size, in which latter case the function of the gradient is chiefly to stabilise the liquid column against mixing. (12 Jan 1998) |
| concentration-response curve | <pharmacology> This is a graph produced to show the relation between the exposure concentration of a drug (or other chemical) and the degree of response it produces, as measured by the percentage of the exposed population showing a defined, often quantal, effect. (05 Jan 1998) |
| critical concentration | <chemistry> The minimum concentration of units needed before a biological polymer will form. Examples of biopolymers are microtubules from tubulin units, polypeptides from amino acid units, polysaccharides from simple sugar units, etc. (09 Oct 1997) |
| critical dissolved oxygen concentration | <biology> The minimum concentration of oxygen in the water needed for the growth of a culture which has been submerged, where oxygen is the limiting factor to the growth of the culture. (09 Oct 1997) |
| critical micelle concentration | The concentration at which an amphipathic molecule (e.g., a phospholipid) will form a micelle. (05 Mar 2000) |