Glossary

This post is intentionally inaccurately dated to keep it at the end. (Last updated,
1/08/09)

Here are some of the terms and acronyms that we use, and what they mean.

bp: blood pressure, normal is approximately 120/70.

bpm: either beats per minute or breaths per minute. For a healthy TJ, it should be around 80 without medication.

C-PAP: A machine for sleep apnea that keeps a continuous pressure on the lungs, as opposed to actually being put on a ventilator which forces the lungs to stay at a certain pressure.

Catheter: A medical line inserted into the body through any opening or artery for the sake of gathering fluid, blood, or delivering medication (e.g., IV's). These may be several feet long and reach into the sub-clavian vein or external jugular. Also called a swan line.

Chest tube: literally a tube inserted into the chest in an attempt to drain fluid from a pleural effusion.

cooling jacket/blanket: A bubble-wrap type apparatus wrapped around the upper body that continually circulates cold water.

DVT: Deep Vein Thombosis. A blood clot in a major vein such as the jugular, but usually found in the legs and arms.

echo: Short for echocardiogram, an ultrasound of the heart

ENT: Eye/Nose/Throat doctor

ET tube: The ventilator tube.

Extubated: In layman's terms: being taken off of a ventilator.

Extubation: The removal of the ET tube.

Hemodynamics: Heart rate, blood pressure, or anything else concerned with the flow of blood.

Intubated: In layman's terms: being on a ventilator.

Intubation: The insertion of the ET tube.

map: Mean arterial pressure, the way blood pressure is usually measured in the ICU. The formula is ( systolic + diastolic * 2 ) / 3. Used instead of the more normal x over y

MdT: Doctor time. Meaning whenever the doctors actually show up, which may or may not be when they said they would.

Pleural Effusion: excess fluid sitting in the pleural cavity that surrounds the lungs.

PT: Physical therapist or physical therapy.

pulmonary edema: when the lungs start leaking fluid because they have too much fluid in them. See this post.

sats: oxygen saturation of the blood in percent, it should normally sit around 97, at the United ICU they are happy with 90.

Swan Line: See catheter. Specific to upper body insertion (I think)

TEE: transesophageal echocardiogram, an echocardiogram that is conducted by putting an ultrasound transducer down the esophagus for a better view of the heart. See Wikipedia article. (Thanks to Tom for the correction)

NG tube: Nasogastric intubation, a highly uncomfortable tube going through the nose down into the stomach. Used for feeding and medication. Wikipedia Article

Vitals: The most important physical aspects about how a person is doing in terms of raw health (e.g., survival). See this post for details.

WBC: Jon probably made this up -- white blood cell count -- 5,000-,6000 (usually seen as 5k-6k) is normal. Significantly higher counts (say, what TJ has had a couple of times) indicate a bacterial infection (e.g., not viral).