Webster's New World Medical Dictionary

ADD 1
Attention deficit disorder.
2
Adenosine
deaminase deficiency.
addiction
An uncontrollable craving, seeking,
and use of a substance such as alcohol or another
drug. Dependence is such an issue with addiction
that stopping is very difficult and causes severe
physical and mental reactions.
Addison’s anemia
See 
anemia, pernicious.
Addison’s disease
Chronic underfunction of the
outer portion of the adrenal gland, most commonly
due to autoimmune destruction. Other causes
include physical trauma to the adrenal gland, hem-
orrhage, tuberculosis, and destruction of the pitu-
itary gland cells that secrete adrenocorticotropic
hormone (ACTH), which normally controls the
adrenal gland. Addison’s disease is characterized by
bronzing of the skin, anemia, weakness, and low
blood pressure.
adducted thumbs
Clasped thumbs, caused by
absence of the extensor pollicis longus and/or bre-
vis muscles to the thumb. When associated with
mental retardation, it is part of an X-linked syn-
drome that affects mainly boys. See 
MASA syn-
drome.
acute nonlymphocytic leukemia
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adduction
Movement of a limb toward the mid-
line of the body. The opposite of adduction is abduc-
tion.
adductor muscle
See 
muscle, adductor.
adenine
A nucleotide member of the base pair
adenine-thymine (A-T) in DNA.
adenitis
Inflammation of a gland.
adenocarcinoma
A cancer that develops in the
lining or inner surface of an organ and usually has
glandular (secretory) properties. More than 95 per-
cent of prostate cancers are adenocarcinomas.
adenoid
A mass of lymphoid tissue in the upper