Life Cycle: From 2 Different Sources
1 The entire course of a person’s life – from infancy to old age. 2 The genetically prescribed course followed by all living organisms, including humans.
The stages of development through which a plant or animal passes during its life. For mosquitoes these stages are: egg, larva, pupa, adult. Normally, development of nematodes included four moults and five successive stages as follows: Adult eggs • (fourth moult) ¯ • Fourth-stage larva First-stage larva • (third moult) (first moult) • Third-stage larva ¬ Second-stage larva (second moult) Generally, there are two types of life cycle for nematodes: direct and indirect types. 1. Direct Life Cycle: requires no intermediate host, after hatching from the eggs the larvae develop in the open from free-living to infective stages and gain access to the definitive host by mouth or penetration through skin. 2. Indirect Life Cycle: requires one or two intermediate hosts for development to infective stage.
The average number of years of life remaining to a person at a particular age based on a given set of age-specific death rates, generally the mortality conditions existing in the period mentioned.... life expectancy
Emergency mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of an unconscious person (see APPENDIX 1: BASIC FIRST AID).... kiss of life
Care of older persons who are dying.... end-of-life care
The time taken for the PLASMA concentration of an administered drug to decline by half as a result of redistribution, METABOLISM and EXCRETION.... half life
A series of key cellular chemical reactions starting and ending with oxaloacetic acid. Also called the citric acid or tricarboxylic acid cycle, it produces energy in the form of ADENOSINE TRIPHOSPHATE (ATP) and is the last stage in the biological oxidation of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. Named after Sir Hans Krebs, a German biochemist working in England in 1900, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery.... krebs cycle
A colloquial description of the feelings of anxiety and distress experienced by some individuals in early middle age. They realise that by 45 years of age they are no longer young, and men in particular try to turn the clock back by changing jobs, dressing trendily, taking up energetic or unusual sports or engaging in extramarital liaisons. Sometimes those in mid-life crises develop mild or even serious DEPRESSION. The feelings of anxiety and insecurity usually disappear with time but some people may bene?t from counselling.... mid-life crisis
The product of the interplay between social, health, economic and environmental conditions which affect human and social development. It is a broad-ranging concept, incorporating a person’s physical health, psychological state, level of independence, social relationships, personal beliefs and relationship to salient features in the environment. As people age, their quality of life is largely determined by their ability to access needed resources and maintain autonomy and independence.... quality of life
See ALTE.... acute life-threatening event (alte)
See CLIMACTERIC; MENOPAUSE.... change of life
A modification of conventional life expectancy to account for time lived with disability. It is the number of healthy years of life that can be expected on average in a given population. It is generally calculated at birth, but estimates can also be prepared at other ages. It adjusts the expectation of years of life for the loss on account of disability, using explicit weights for different health states.... disability-adjusted life expectancy
The number of healthy years of life lost due to premature death and disability.... disability-adjusted life years (dalys)
The average number of years an individual of a given age is expected to live if current mortality rates continue to apply. See “life expectancy”.... expectation of life
Individual outcome measure that extends beyond traditional measures of mortality and morbidity to include such dimensions as physiology, function, social activity, cognition, emotion, sleep and rest, energy and vitality, health perception and general life satisfaction (some of these are also known as health status, functional status or quality-of-life measures).... health-related quality-of-life (hrql) measure
See “disability-adjusted life expectancy”.... healthy life expectancy
See “life cycle”.... life course
Longevity, Health, Healing... life everlasting
Insurance providing for payment of a stipulated sum to a designated beneficiary upon death of the insured.... life insurance
See “well-being”.... life satisfaction
The longest period over which the life of any plant or animal organism or species may extend, according to the available biological knowledge concerning it.... life span
Drugs, medical devices, or procedures that can keep alive a person who would otherwise die within a foreseeable, though usually uncertain, time. Examples include cardiopulmonary resuscitation, mechanical ventilation, renal dialysis, nutritional support (i.e. tube or intravenous feeding) and provision of antibiotics to fight life-threatening infections.... life-sustaining treatment
Years of life saved by a medical technology or service, adjusted according to the quality of those years (as determined by some evaluative measure). QALYs are the most commonly used unit to express the results in some types of cost-effectiveness analysis.... quality-adjusted life years (qalys)
(ALS) a structured and algorithm-driven method of life support for use in the severest of medical emergencies, especially cardiac arrest. Doctors, nurses, and paramedic personnel involved in ALS receive special training in the use of equipment (e.g. defibrillators and appropriate drugs). Paediatric advanced life support (PALS) is ALS for use in severe medical emergencies in children, while advanced trauma life support(ATLS) is specifically for patients who have been subjected to major trauma, such as a serious road accident. Compare basic life support.... advanced life support
the provision of treatment designed to maintain adequate circulation and ventilation to a patient in *cardiac arrest, without the use of drugs or specialist equipment. Compare advanced life support.... basic life support
see Krebs cycle.... citric acid cycle
(DLQI) a validated questionnaire designed by Finlay in 1994 to assess the impact of skin diseases on psychological and social wellbeing. It is the most common *quality of life tool used as an endpoint in dermatology clinical trials. DLQI scores of more than 10 (indicating a severe impact on life) are required before biological treatments for psoriasis may be administered in the UK.... dermatology life quality index
(DALY) a common research measure of disease burden that accounts for both morbidity and mortality. One year lived in full health is equivalent to one DALY. Disabilities and disease states are assigned a weighting that reduces this figure, such that a year lived with disability is equivalent to less than one DALY. Some studies also use social weighting, in which years lived as a young adult receive a greater DALY weight than those lived as a young child or older adult. See also health-adjusted life expectancy; quality of life.... disability-adjusted life year
a measure developed by the World Health Organization to capture life expectancy in terms of both morbidity and mortality. The number of years lived with ill-health, weighted according to severity, are subtracted from the overall life expectancy. Previously known as disability-adjusted life expectancy, it is sometimes referred to as healthy life expectancy. See also disability-adjusted life year.... health-adjusted life expectancy
an actuarial presentation of the ages at which a group of males and/or females are expected to die and from which mean life expectancy at any age can be estimated, based on the assumption that mortality patterns current at the time of preparation of the table will continue to apply.... life table
the periodic sequence of events in sexually mature nonpregnant women by which an egg cell (ovum) is released from the ovary at four-weekly intervals until *menopause. The stages of the menstrual cycle are shown in the diagram. An ovum develops within a *Graafian follicle in the ovary. When mature, it bursts from the follicle and travels along the Fallopian tube to the uterus. A temporary endocrine gland – the corpus luteum – develops in the ruptured follicle and secretes the hormone *progesterone, which causes the lining of the uterus (endometrium) to become thicker and richly supplied with blood in preparation for pregnancy. If the ovum is not fertilized the cycle continues: the corpus luteum shrinks and the endometrium is shed at *menstruation. If fertilization does take place the fertilized ovum becomes attached to the endometrium and the corpus luteum continues to secrete progesterone, i.e. pregnancy begins.... menstrual cycle
the religious or moral belief that all life – and especially all human life – is intrinsically valuable and so should never be deliberately harmed or destroyed. Many of those who hold such a view will have ethical objections to *euthanasia, *abortion, and *embryo research. The phrase may also be used to denote that the value of life should always be respected, whatever the perceived quality of that life. See also humanity; personhood.... sanctity of life
(YLL, years of potential life lost, YPLL, potential years of life lost, PYLL) a measure of premature mortality that calculates the number of additional years a person could have expected to live, on average, had they not died prematurely. A reference age intended to represent the total number of years a person can expect to live, on average, is required for the calculation: this is often given in square brackets after YLL. Negative values for YLL are not used: if somebody survives longer than the reference age, their YLL is calculated as 0. YLLs for different diseases can be compared across populations to give an indication of which diseases carry the greatest burden of premature mortality.... years of life lost
Health Encyclopedia