Glossary

Diabetes insipidus – a condition characterized by excessive urination. The urine is severely dilute and the patient characteristically has excessive thirst. Fluid restriction has no effect on the degree of dilutation in the urine. The most common reason is central DI due to a lack of diuretic hormone (ADH or arginine vasopressin) but DI can also occur due to an insensitivity to ADH in the kidneys (nephrogenic diabetes insipidus or as a result of a drug being administered.

Rapid, alternating muscle movement.  The ability to rapidly alternate between agonistic and antagonistic muscle movements.

Trade name for the drug acetazolamide.

desmoplastic infantile ganglioglioma

Deoxyribonucleic acid – This is the molecule containing the genetic code used to reproduce and then control function in all known living organisms and many viruses.

Dysembryoplastic Neuroepithelial Tumors – A very low grade, indolent glial-neuronal tumor arising in the brain and associated with seizure disorders.

Sickle Cells. Refers to sickle shaped red blood cells seen in individuals with Sickle Cell Anemia.  Such red blood cells assume this shape with traveling through capillaries with low oxygen tension which causes the cell to become rigid and to sickle.

Dorsal Root Entry Zone.  Refers to dorsal or posterior area of the spinal cord that is the entry site for sensory nerve rootlets.  This area is a surgical target for some pain and spasticity procedures (e.g., DREZ lesioning).

Drainage, irrigation, and fibrinolytic therapy – a therapy directed toward intraventricular hemorrhage with a goal of clearing hemorrhagic clot from the ventricle. The treatment consists of the placement of two externalized ventricular catheters with one in the frontal horn of one lateral ventricle and the other in the contra-lateral occipital horn. A solution of tPA, a fibrinolytic, is delivered by one catheter into the ventricles while the other catheter removes a volume of CSF so as to maintain an ICP below 7 mm Hg. Infusion stops when the CSF clears.

Digital subtraction angiography – A technique used to highlight circulatory vessels. Fluoroscopic radiographs are taken before and after the injection of a contrast media into the circulatory vessels. The image taken before the injection is then used to mask out or “subtract” bony or dense soft tissue seen on the images. This results in a highlighting of the vessels filled with contrast media.