- Apoplexy
- A venerable term for a stroke, a cerebrovascular accident (CVA), often associated with loss of consciousness and paralysis of various parts of the body. The word "apoplexy" comes from the Greek "apoplexia" meaning a seizure, in the sense of being struck down. In Greek "plexe" is "a stroke." The ancients believed that someone suffering a stroke (or any sudden incapacity) had been struck down by the gods.
* * *SYN: stroke (1). [G. apoplexia]- abdominal a. mesenteric hemorrhage, thrombosis, or embolus involving the mesenteric or abdominal blood vessel s.- adrenal a. hemorrhage into the adrenal glands or thrombosis of the adrenal veins, followed by acute adrenal insufficiency, occurring in the Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome.- functional a. a condition simulating a. without any cerebral lesion; a form of conversion hysteria.- heat a. 1. SYN: heatstroke. 2. SYN: ardent fever.- labyrinthine a. a clinical syndrome manifested as a single, abrupt attack of severe vertigo, nausea, and vomiting, with permanent loss of labyrinthine function on one side, but without associated hearing loss or tinnitus. Attributed to occlusion of the labyrinthine branch of the internal auditory artery.- pituitary a. the sudden onset of visual loss, ophthalmoplegia, and meningeal pain due to infarction of a pituitary adenoma, producing compression of chiasm and cavernous sinus and some subarachnoid hemorrhage.- uteroplacental a. SYN: Couvelaire uterus.
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1) STROKE2) copious hemorrhage into a cavity or into the substance of an organ <abdominal \apoplexy> <adrenal \apoplexy>* * *
n.* * *
ap·o·plexy (apґo-plek″se) [Gr. apoplēxia] 1. stroke syndrome. 2. hemorrhage into an organ. apoplectic adj
Medical dictionary. 2011.