Dictionary

tag, preauricular See ear tag.

Taenia solium A tapeworm that can parasitize people and can be contracted from undercooked or infested pork. Also known as the armed tapeworm, the pork tapeworm, and the measly tapeworm.

Taenia saginata See beef tapeworm.

taenia 1 In medicine, a genus of large tapeworms, some of which are parasitic in humans. 2 In anatomy, a band or a structural line; specifically, several bands and lines of nervous matter in the brain. Also spelled tenia.

tactile Having to do with touch. For example, tactile signs of disease are signs that are perceptible by touch, such as roughness of the skin.

tachypnea Abnormally fast breathing.

tachycardia A rapid heart rate, usually defined as greater than 100 beats per minute.

tachy- Prefix meaning swift or rapid, as in tachycardia (rapid heart rate). From the Greek word tachys, meaning “swift.”

tache noire French for “black spot,” to describe a small ulcer covered with a black crust at the site of a tick bite. A tache noire is characteristic of several tick-borne rickettsial diseases. See also rickettsial diseases.

TACE Transarterial chemoembolization, a procedure in which the blood supply to a tumor is blocked (embolized) and chemotherapy is administered directly into the tumor. For example, TACE has been used to treat some liver cancers.

tablespoon An old-fashioned but convenient household measure of capacity that is equal to about 15 cc of liquid.

tabes dorsalis See neurosyphilis, tabes.