Letter: a

A hereditary tendency to develop IgE-mediated states of hypersensitivity, such as hay fever.

Flu primarily caused by viruses that normally infect only birds (e.g. H5N1 virus). Transmission is from bird to bird, but occasionally transmitted from bird to human. Fear of global pandemic would occur if the virus were to become capable of spreading from person to person as the human immune system would not recognize the virus and would require time to mount a defense. Unfortunately, the virus may be very virulent and kill the individual before the defense is capable of mounting. Death rates could be extremely high.

Adenosine Triphosphate

The axial nerve or circumflex nerve is a nerve that comes off the brachial plexus at the level of the axilla (armpit) and carries nerve fibers from C5 and C6. The nerve supplies the deltoid (shoulder muscle) teres minor (one of the rotator cuff muscles) and an elbow extensor muscle.

American Thoracic Society

The second cervical vertebra (C2) of the spine; aka epistropheus.

The process of causing genetic changes to weaken a pathogen, rendering it nonpathogenic usually for use as a vaccine.

A long slender projection of a nerve cell that conducts electrical impulses away from the neurons cell body (soma).

Process of listening for sounds within the body (e.g., breathing, heart beat, vascular passage, abdominal viscera).

A machine utilizing pressurized steam that enters a chamber to render items sterile. Most professional steam sterilizers also utilize a vacuum mechanisms to ultimately increase steam penetration early in the cycle and remove it rapidly at cycle completion.