Letter: v

Of or pertaining to a position toward the belly, or, in humans, the anterior or front surface of the body.

A subset of HAP; a nosocomial pneumonia that develops in patients after they have been on mechanical ventilator support for ?48 hours.

Surgical incision in the vein (e.g. to perform angioplasty).

A blood vessel that carries blood low in oxygen content from the body, back to the heart. The deoxygenated form of hemoglobin (deoxyhemoglobin) in venous blood makes it appear dark. Veins are part of the afferent wing of the circulatory system which returns blood to the heart. The blood is darker than oxygenated blood.

Are the non-spore forms of bacteria. Only in this more vulnerable vegetative form can bacteria take in nutrients, grow, reproduce and produce toxins. Much more suseptible to disinfectants.

Object or animal by which organisms are transmitted (e.g., insect, flies, lice, ticks).

Ventilation-perfusion ratio

Veterans Administration

A bubble or space in a cell. In a macrophage, the phagolysosome is a vacuole in which enzymes and toxic peroxides digest foreign debris including microorganisms.

Forced expiratory effort (strain) against a closed airway, bearing down.