| respiratory rate | The number of breaths per minute (or, more formally, the number of movements indicative of inspiration and expiration per unit time). In practice, the respiratory rate is usually determined by counting the number of times the chest rises (or falls) per minute. By whatever means, the aim is to determine if the respirations are normal, abnormally fast (tachypnea), abnormally slow (technically termed bradypnea), or nonexistent (apnea). (12 Dec 1998) |
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| response rate | <oncology> The percentage of patients showing partial or complete response to the given treatment. (16 Dec 1997) |
| per capita rate | <epidemiology> A rate which is proportional to the number of individuals in a population. (05 Dec 1998) |
| perinatal mortality rate | The number of stillborn infants of 24 completed weeks or more plus the number of deaths occurring under 7 days of life divided by the number of stillborn infants of 24 weeks or more gestation plus all liveborn infants in the same population, regardless of the period of gestation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| metabolic clearance rate | Volume of biological fluid completely cleared of drug metabolites as measured in unit time. Elimination occurs as a result of metabolic processes in the kidney, liver, saliva, sweat, intestine, heart, brain, or other site. (12 Dec 1998) |
| gross reproduction rate | The average number of female children a woman would have if she survived to the end of her childbearing years and if, throughout that period, she were subject to a given set of age-specific fertility rates and a given sex ratio at birth; this rate provides a measure of the replacement fertility of a population in the absence of mortality. (05 Mar 2000) |
| growth rate | <biology, cell culture, ecology> The rate, or speed, at which the number of organisms in a population increases. This can be calculated by dividing the change in the number of organisms from one point in time to another by the amount of time in the interval between the points of time. The phrase is most often used to describe growth of cells or microorganisms in laboratory cultures and usually expressed as the generation time. (21 Jun 2000) |
| growth rate of population | <epidemiology> A measure of population change in the absence of migration, comprising addition of newborns and subtraction of deaths; the result is known as the natural rate of increase of the population; it is the difference between the crude birth rate and the crude death rate. (05 Mar 2000) |
| mitotic rate | The proportion of cells in a tissue that are undergoing mitosis, expressed as a mitotic index or, roughly, as the number of cells in mitosis in each microscopic high-power field in tissue sections. (05 Mar 2000) |
| morbidity rate | The sickness rate, the number of people who are sick or have a disease compared with the number who are well. (09 Oct 1997) |
| mortality rate | <statistics> The proportion of deaths in a population or to a specific number of the population. (18 Nov 1997) |
| mortality rate, foetal | The ratio of foetal deaths to the sum of the births (the live births + the foetal deaths) in that year. In the united states, the foetal mortality rate plummeted from 19.2 per 1,000 births in 1950 to 9.2 per 1,000 births in 1980. (12 Dec 1998) |
| mortality rate, infant | The number of children dying under a year of age divided by the number of live births that year. The infant mortality rate in the united states, which was 12.5 per 1,000 live births in 1980, fell to 9.2 per 1,000 live births in 1990. (12 Dec 1998) |
| mortality rate, maternal | The number of maternal deaths related to childbearing divided by the number of live births (or by the number of live births + foetal deaths) in that year. The maternal mortality rate in the united states in 1993 (and 1994) was 0.1 per 1,000 live births, or 1 mother dying per 10,000 live births. (12 Dec 1998) |
| mortality rate, neonatal | The number of children dying under 28 days of age divided by the number of live births that year. The neonatal mortality rate in the united states, which was 8.4 per 1,000 live births in 1980, declined to 5.8 per 1,000 live births in 1990. (12 Dec 1998) |