Webster's New World Medical Dictionary

kidney stones, cystine
See 
cystine kidney
stones.
kidney transplant
Replacement of a diseased,
damaged, or missing kidney with a donor kidney.
Patients with end-stage kidney failure are candidates
for transplantation. A successful transplant frees the
patient from needing dialysis and provides the kid-
ney’s other metabolic functions. The principal
problems in kidney transplantation are immuno-
logic—avoiding rejection of the transplanted kid-
ney by the recipient’s immune system. The first
kidney transplant was done by the US surgeon
Joseph E. Murray in 1954. It was the first successful
human organ transplant. See also 
transplant.
killed polio vaccine
See 
polio vaccine,
inactivated.
kilobase
A unit of length of DNA that is equal to
1,000 nucleotide bases. Abbreviated Kb.
kilocalorie
The amount of energy required to
raise the temperature of 1 liter of water 1° Celsius
at sea level. In nutrition terms, the word calorie is
commonly used instead of the more precise scien-
tific term kilocalorie. See also 
calorie.
kidney stone
234
Kimmelstiel-Wilson disease
See 
diabetic
nephropathy.
kindred
The extended family.
kinetic
With movement, as opposed to akinetic.
kinetics 1
The rate of change in a biochemical or
other reaction.
2
The study of reaction rates.
kinky hair syndrome
See 
Menkes syndrome.
kinship
Relationship by marriage or, specifically,
a blood tie.
kissing bugs
Insect carriers of the parasite
Trypanosoma cruzi, which causes Chagas disease.
The bugs “kiss” people, especially babies, on the
lips while they are asleep, infecting them with their
parasite. See also 
Chagas disease.