Glossary
P
- Palate
- Tissue and bone wall separating the oral and nasal cavities.
- Palliative
- Treatment that has no curative intent but is given to maintain quality of life and to relieve suffering in a terminally ill patient.
- Palpate Palpates
- To examine the body by feeling with the hands or fingers.
- Palpitation Palpitations
- Sensation that the heart is beating fast or "racing."
- Pancreas
- Spongy, elongated organ that produces digestive juices, sodium bicarbonate, and insulin.
- Parasite
- An organism that lives upon or within another organism and takes advantage of that organism; common cause of infectious diseases worldwide.
- Parietal cell Parietal cells
- The cells in the stomach that produce acid.
- Pathogen Pathogens
- Any organism capable of causing a disease.
- Pelvis
- The basin-shaped structure of the vertebrate skeleton that rests on the lower limbs and supports the spinal column.
- Pericardium
- The outer fluid-filled sac that surrounds and protects the heart.
