Glossary
V
- Vaccine
- A serum, made of living or inactivated pathogens (or parts of pathogens), administered to a vulnerable host to cause the host to become resistant to infectious diseases caused by the pathogen.
- Vasoconstriction
- Narrowing of a vessel lumen due to contraction of smooth muscle cells in the vessel wall.
- Vasodilation
- Dilation of blood vessels, which lowers blood pressure.
- Vasospasm
- Sudden vasoconstriction.
- Vena cava
- The name applied to either of the two large vessels that collect the blood from all the other veins and return it to the right atrium of the heart.
- Virus
- A small organism that is often pathogenic.
- Viscera
- The organs within the body cavities, especially the organs of the abdominal cavities.
- Visceral
- Referring to the internal organs (heart, lungs, GI tract, etc.).
- Viscosity
- Property of a liquid that describes its relative resistance to flow.
- Visualisation Visualization
- Visualisation is the process of representing abstract scientific data as images that can aid in understanding the meaning of the data.
