Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Glossary
Bat A bat is not a flying mouse and is not a member of Class Rodentia, flying or other-
wise. Bats are mammals of Class Chiroptera. With forelimbs that have evolved into
wings, they are the only mammals capable of sustained, self-propelled flight. Their rele-
vance in this topic stems from their status as viral vectors (see Chapter 38). At pres-
ent, bat populations of many species are being decimated by
Geomyces destructans
,a
fungus in Class Ascomycota, the cause of white-nose syndrome. Apparently, the fun-
gal infection, which grows in cold conditions, awakens bats from their deep hiberna-
tion; starvation results.
Blood contamination When a blood donor is infected with a pathogenic organism, the
disease can be passed to the recipient. Examples of organisms and diseases that can be
spread through transfused blood or blood components include:
Human immunodeficiency virus
Human T-lymphotropic viruses type I and type II
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis E
Cytomegalovirus
Epstein
Barr virus
Human parvovirus B19
Human herpesvirus 6
Human herpesvirus 8
TT virus or transfusion transmitted virus or torque teno virus [158]
SEN virus [132]
CJD and vCJD
Syphilis
Malaria
Chagas disease
African trypanosomiasis
Toxoplasmosis
Leishmaniasis
Babesiosis
Rocky Mountain spotted fever
Ehrlichiosis
Cladistics The technique of producing a hierarchy of clades, wherein each clade is a
monophyletic class. See Monophyletic class.
Class A defined group within a taxonomy. The most familiar classes in biological taxon-
omy are the classes that form the ranked hierarchy of living organisms: Kingdom,
