Terminology Flashcards
Clinical symptoms
Signs of disease that may be observed, and present themselves in a notable physical or production change.
Sub-clinical symptoms
Signs that remain present without notable physical or productivity changes.
Acute symptoms
Rapid in onset, aggressive and brief in duration.
Chronic symptoms
Less intense, relatively slow in development, and persist over a long period of time.
Incubation period
The length of time between contracting a disease/pathogen and displaying symptoms.
Pathology
The study of disease focusing on its causes (aetiology), development and progress, and how the body is affected.
Pathogenesis
Term describing the course of disease development, including cellular events and reactions involved, tissues and systems affected, and mechanisms of damage.
Pathogen
A disease-causing agent
Pathogenicity
The capacity of an agent to initiate disease/pathological changes.
Disease
Physiological imbalances generally caused by a pathogen
Disorder
Physiological imbalance without a causal agent - e.g auto- immune diseases
Aetiology
The cause of a disease, the study of the cause of a disease
Exposure
The act of contacting a disease causing organism. This may or may not lead to infection.
Infection
Invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms.
Infectivity
The ability to breach a new host’s defence.
