This is a collection of definitions that I considered to be essential knowledge for the CICM basic sciences primary exam. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list but if you think there are definitions that should be included, please send them this way.
| afterload | Myocardial wall tension during systole. Alternatively, resistance to the ejection of stroke volume. |
| vitimin | Organic substance required in the diet in small amounts for normal health and is not an energy substrate. |
| mineral | Inorganic substance required in the diet in small amounts for normal health. |
| preload | Average myocardial sarcomere length at onset of systole. Approximates with end diastolic volume. |
| myocardial contractility | Intrinsic ability of the heart to contract and generate systolic pressure independent of preload and afterload. |
| pathogenicity | Tendency of an organism to cause disease. |
| pathogen | Organism that causes disease. |
| virulance | Severity of disease caused by a pathogen. |
| commensal | Organism that colonises a host without causing disease. |
| essential fatty acid | Fat/ oil required in the diet in small amounts for normal health. Differs from vitamins in that EFAs may be used as energy substrate. |
| closing capacity | Largest lung volume at which there is some degree of airway colapse in the depenent regions. |
| functional residual capacity (FRC) | Volume of gas in the lungs at the end of expiration in normal tidal breathing. 30ml/kg. |
| Huffner constant | Haemaglobin capacity for oxygen. maximal volume of oxygen that can be held by a mass of haemablobin. Value = 1.39 mls/g theoretical maximum and 1.34 mls/g allowing for physiological ammounts of methaemaglobin and carboxyhaemaglobin. |
| hypoxia | Low oxygen delivery. |
| hypoxaemia | Low oxygen content in arterial blood. |
| re-feeding syndrome | Potentialy fatal shifts in electrolytes and fluids assosiated with the reinstatment of nutrition in a malnourished person. |
| pain | Unpleasant sensory and emotional experience assosiated with actual or potential tissue dammage. |
| buffer | Solution containing either weak acids, weak bases or both that tend to limit changes in hydrogen ion concentration when further acid or base is added to the solution. |
| saturated vapor pressure | Pressure exerted by a vapor in equilibrium with its liquid state for a given temperature. |
| Fick principal | Blood flow is equal to uptake / production of an indicator by an organ devided by the arteriovenous concentration difference. |
| opioid | Substance exogenous or endogenous that exerts morphine like properties via the opioid receptors and antagonised by naloxone. |
| opiate | Endogenous non-peptide opiod. |
| acid (Bronsted-Lowry) | Proton donating molecule. |
| acid (Lewis) | Electron pair accepting molecule. |
| acid (Arrhenius) | Molecule that tends to decrease pH when in solution with water. |
| pKa | Negative logarithm of the acid disosiation constant for an acid or base. |
| drug | Substance which, when administered, alters body function. |
| ion trapping | The phenomenon where weak acids tend to ionise and accumulate in alkali fluid compartments and visa versa. |
| volume of distribution | Theoretical volume into which a drug would need to be disolved to give the plasma concentration. |
| clearance | Volume of plasma cleared of a substance per unit time. |
| bioassay | A test to compare the relative potency of two drug preperations. |
| potency | Inverse drug dose required to achieve an effect. |
| blood pressure | Force per unit area exerted on the vascular tree by its contents. |
| boiling point | Temperature at which a liquid's saturated vapour pressure equals the surrounding atmospheric pressure. |
| absolute humidity | Mass of water per unit volume of a gas. Usualy expressed as mg/l or g/m3. |
| relative humidity | Ratio of absolute humidity to humidity at saturation for a given temperature and pressure. |
| viscosity | The resistance of a fluid to flow. On a mathmatical level it is the ratio of shear force to shear rate. |
| vapour | Substance in a gas-like state below it's critical temperature. Example: nitrous oxide at room temperature. |
| triple point | Temperature at which a substance can exist as solid, liquid and vapour. |
| saturated vapour pressure | Pressure exerted by a saturated vapour, ie where it is in equilibrium with its liquid state. |
| Lambert Law | Intensity of light transmitted through a solution decreases exponentially with the length of path. |
| Beer Law | Intensity of light transmitted through a solution decreases exponentially with the concentration of solution. |
| Fourier analysis | Mathmatical seperation of a complex waveform into simple costituent sine waves. |
| natural freequency | Oscillations per unit time of unforced vibration in a system. Abreviated to Fn. |
| resonant freequency | Oscilations per time of forcing vibration that generates the greatest amplitude of vibration in a system. Equates to natural freequency in most systems. |
| damping | Tendancy for the amplitude of vibration in a system to decay over time. |
| fundamental freequency | The lowest resonant freequency of a system. Also known as the first harmonic. Abreviated to F0. |
| critical temperature | Temerature at which a substance cannot be converted from a vapor into a liquid by increases in pressure. |
| gas | Subtance above its critical temperature. |
| absolute pressure | True force per unit area exerted by a substance on its container. |
| gauge pressure | Pressure difference to atmospheric pressure. |
| adhesion | Attraction between molocules of different substance. |
| cohesion | Attraction between molocules of the same substance. |
| Dopler effect | Apparent change in freequency of wave when there is relative movement of the source towards or away from the observer. |
