Letter: c

Pertaining to the neck or cervix.

Location: neck. Supplies the skin and muscles of the head, neck, and upper parts of the shoulders. Connects with some cranial nerves and supplies the diaphragm.

Continuing Education Unit

Colony-Forming Unit

Contact Hour

Also known as tuberculum caroticum, the carotid tubercle; is the name given to the anterior tubercle of the transverse process of the sixth cervical vertebra against which the carotid artery may be compressed by the finger. By massaging the carotid against the tubercle, superventricular tachycardia symptoms can be relieved. The Chassaignac tubercle is used as a landmark by anesthesiologists for local anesthesia of the brachial plexus and the cervical plexus using the supraclavicular approach.

In instrument processing, chelating agents are used to bind with hard water minerals to prevent them from depositing onto the device and to prevent the possible adverse reactions with the cleaning solutions. Chelating is also used to treat blood. This can be done as a treatment to precipitate unwanted accumulation of specific minerals, in sample containers when blood is collected for various diagnostic assays or to prevent clotting.

Refers to the attraction of phagocytes (white blood cells) to a site they are needed. The attraction is created by chemical stimuli secreted from injured tissue cells and by microbial products. The concentration of the chemicals form a gradient which is most concentrated at the source of origin. During chemotactic movement, the white cells hone into the highest concentration and therefore to the offending pathogen, object or injury.

Treatment of infections or other diseases (e.g. various cancers) with chemical agents; often increases development of mucositis.

A pattern of breathing characterized by a period of apnea lasting 10 to 60 seconds, followed by a period of increasing depth and rate of breathing, followed by a period of decreasing depth and frequency until another period of apnea develops. Cheyne-Stokes breathing is sometimes associated with central nervous system depressant drug overdoses, or reduced cerebral blood flow.