The ability to oppose.
In medicine, it has several different meanings.
A resistance to the flow of blood is exerted by the blood vessel walls.
Increased resistance leads to raised blood pressure.
In psychoanalysis, resistance refers to the blocking off from consciousness of repressed memories or emotions.
Resistance may also refer to an ability to withstand attack from poisons, irritants, or microorganisms.
A person’s resistance to infection is called immunity.
The term drug resistance refers to the ability of some microorganisms to withstand attack from previously effective drug treatments.
An inherited ability of a pathogen or vector to survive treatment with a chemical designed to kill it. The ability of a parasite to live in the presence of a drug, that would normally kill members of the same species.
In a medical context, resistance has several meanings. The walls of blood vessels exert resistance to the ?ow of blood and this rises as the diameters of the vessels diminish. This in turn leads to a rise in blood pressure: the phenomenon may be physiological or pathological.
Resistance may also mean the extent of the body’s IMMUNITY – an indication of its ability to withstand disease. Another meaning relates to the development of resistance in a bacterium (see BACTERIA) to the effects on it of ANTIBIOTICS.
In PSYCHOANALYSIS, resistance refers to the blocking-o? from a person’s consciousness of repressed emotions and memories. A psychoanalyst helps the patient to break this resistance and bring the repressed material out into the open. (See also REPRESSED MEMORY THERAPY.)
n. 1. the degree of *immunity that the body possesses: a measure of its ability to withstand disease. 2. the degree to which a disease or disease-causing organism remains unaffected by antibiotics or other drugs.
The sum total of body mechanisms which interpose barriers to the progress of invasion or multiplication of infectious agents, or to damage by their toxic products. 1. Immunity - That resistance usually associated with possession of antibodies having a specific action on the microorganism concerned with a particular infectious disease or on its toxin. Passive immunity is attained either naturally, by maternal transfer, or artificially, by inoculation of specific protective antibodies (convalescent or immune serum or immune serum (gamma) globulin (human) and is of brief duration (days to months). Active immunity lasting months to years is attained either naturally, by infection, with or without clinical manifestations, or artificially, byinoculation of fractions or products of the infectious agent or of the agent itself, in killed, modified or variant form. 2. Inherent resistance - An ability to resist disease independently of antibodies or of specifically developed tissue response; it commonly rests in anatomic or physiologic characteristics of the host; it may be genetic or acquired, permanent or temporary.... resistance (host)
measurement of the resistance of the cervix during the passage of a series of metal (Hegar) dilators. Lack of resistance in a nonpregnant women may suggest cervical weakness when she has experienced a previous second-trimester pregnancy loss or if she has had previous surgery to the cervix, and may indicate *cervical cerclage in the event of future pregnancies.... cervical resistance index
diminution in the response of the body’s tissues to insulin, so that higher concentrations of serum insulin are required to maintain normal circulating glucose levels. Eventually the islet cells can no longer produce adequate amounts of insulin for effective glucose lowering, resulting in hyperglycaemia. Insulin resistance is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. See also diabetes mellitus; metabolic syndrome.... insulin resistance
Health Encyclopedia