1. [NA] SYN: i. finger. 2. A guide, standard, indicator, symbol, or number denoting the relation in respect to size, capacity, or function, of one part or thing to another. SEE ALSO: quotient, ratio. 3. A core or mold used to record or maintain the relative position of a tooth or teeth to one another and/or to a cast. 4. A guide, usually made of plaster, used to reposition teeth, casts, or parts. 5. In epidemiology, a rating scale. [L. one that points out, an informer, the forefinger, an i., fr. in-dico, pp. -atus, to declare]
- amnionic fluid i. the sum of the diameters of the largest vertical pocket of amnionic fluid in each of the four quadrants of the uterus as obtained by ultrasound; a measure of fluid volume during pregnancy.
- anesthetic i. ratio of the number of units of anesthetic required for anesthesia to the number of units of anesthetic required to produce respiratory or cardiovascular failure.
- antitryptic i. an obsolete term for the relative retardation in loss of viscosity of a solution of casein incubated with trypsin, to which a drop of abnormal blood serum (as from a cancerous patient) has been added, compared with that in a similar solution to which normal serum has been added; if the former drips through the tube of the viscosimeter in 100 seconds, and the latter in 104 seconds, the antitryptic i. is 4.
- Arneth i. an expression based on adding the percentages of polymorphonuclear neutrophils with 1 or 2 lobes in their nuclei, plus one-half the percentage with 3 lobes; the normal value is 60%. SEE ALSO: Arneth formula, Arneth count.
- auricular i. relation of the width to the height of the auricle or pinna : (width of pinna × 100)/length of pinna.
- Ayala i. the cerebrospinal i. when 10 ml of cerebrospinal fluid have been removed. SYN: Ayala quotient, spinal quotient.
- basilar i. ratio between the basialveolar line and the maximum length of the cranium, according to the formula : (basialveolar line × 100)/length of cranium. SYN: alveolar i. (2).
- Bödecker i. a modification of the DMF caries i..
- body mass i. an anthropometric measure of body mass, defined as weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared; a method of determining caloric nutritional status.
- cardiac i. the amount of blood ejected by the heart in a unit of time divided by the body surface area; usually expressed in liters per minute per square meter.
- centromeric i. the ratio of the length of the short arm of the chromosome to that of the total chromosome; ordinarily expressed as a percentage.
- cephalic i. the ratio of the maximal breadth to the maximal length of the head, obtained by the formula : (breadth × 100)/length. SYN: length-breadth i..
- cephalo- orbital i. the ratio of the cubic content of the two orbits to that of the cranial cavity multiplied by 100.
- cerebral i. the ratio of the transverse to the anteroposterior diameter of the cranial cavity multiplied by 100.
- cerebrospinal i. the figure obtained by multiplying the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid, after fluid has been withdrawn by spinal puncture, by the quantity of fluid withdrawn and then dividing by the original pressure.
- chemotherapeutic i. the ratio of the minimal effective dose of a chemotherapeutic agent to the maximal tolerated dose. Originally used by Ehrlich to express the relative toxicity of a chemotherapeutic agent to a parasite and to its host.
- cranial i. the ratio of the maximal breadth to the maximal length of the skull, obtained by the formula : (breadth × 100)/length.
- Cumulative I. Medicus collection of medical literature, published annually, which began in the US Army Surgeon General's office at the end of the Civil War. It has been taken over by the National Library of Medicine and has evolved into a database called MEDLINE.
- Dean fluorosis i. an i. that measures the degree of mottled enamel (fluorosis) in teeth; used most often in epidemiological field studies.
- def caries i., DEF caries i. an i. of past caries experience based upon the number of decayed, extracted, and filled deciduous (indicated by lower case letters) or permanent (indicated by capital letters) teeth.
- degenerative i. the percentage of granulocytes that contain toxic granules in the cytoplasm, as compared with the total percentage of granulocytes.
- dental i. (DI) 1. relation of the dental length (distance from the mesial surface of the first premolar to the distal surface of the third molar) to the basinasal (basion to nasion) length : (dental length ×100)/basinasal length; 2. a system of numbers for indicating comparative size of the teeth. SYN: Flower dental i..
- df caries i., DF caries i. an i. of past caries experience based upon the number of decayed and filled deciduous (indicated by lower case letters) or permanent (indicated by capital letters) teeth. SYN: df, DF.
- diet quality i. a measure of the quality of the diet using a composite of eight recommendations regarding the consumption of foods and nutrients from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Meeting the standard is assigned a value of 0, within 30% of goal a value of 1, differing by more than 30% a 2. The resulting i. can be a figure of between 0–16, the lower the better. The NAS recommendations include : reducing total fat intake to 30% or less of total energy; reducing saturated fatty-acid intake to less than 10% of energy; reducing cholesterol intake to less than 300 mg daily; eating 5 or more servings daily of vegetables and fruits; increasing intake of starches and other complex carbohydrates by eating 6 or more servings daily of bread, cereal, and legumes; maintaining protein intake at moderate levels (levels lower than twice the RDA); limiting total daily intake of sodium to 2400 mg or less; and maintaining adequate calcium intake (approximately the RDA).
- dmfs caries i., DMFS caries i. an i. of past caries experience based upon the number of decayed, missing, and filled surfaces of deciduous (indicated by lower-case letters) or permanent (indicated by capital letters) teeth.
- effective temperature i. a composite i. of environmental comfort which is compared after exposure to different combinations of air temperature, humidity, and movement.
- empathic i. the degree of emotional understanding or empathy experienced by a health services provider or other person concerning another person, more particularly of a sufferer from some emotional or somatic condition.
- endemic i. the percentage of children infected with malaria or other endemic disease, in any given locality.
- erythrocyte indices calculations for determining the average size, hemoglobin content, and concentration of hemoglobin in red blood cells, specifically mean cell volume, mean cell hemoglobin, and mean cell hemoglobin concentration; results are commonly used in the classification and diagnosis of red cell disorders.
- facial i. relation of the length of the face to its maximal width between the zygomatic prominences; to get superior facial i., the length of the face is measured from the nasion to the alveolar point : (nasialveolar length × 100)/bizygomatic width; for total facial i., length is measured from the nasion to the mental tubercle : (nasimental length × 100)/bizygomatic width.
- free thyroxine i. (FTI) an arbitrary value obtained by multiplying the triiodothyronine uptake by the serum thyroxine concentration; it largely corrects for variations in thyroid-bound globulin concentration by providing a clinically valid estimate of the physiologically active free thyroxine; direct assay or laboratory measurement of free serum thyroxine yields a more accurate value.
- glycemic i. a ranking of the rise in serum glucose from various foodstuffs.
- gnathic i. relation between the basialveolar (basion to alveolar point) and basinasal (basion to nasion) lengths: (basialveolar length × 100)/basinasal length; the result indicates the degree of projection of the maxilla or upper jaw. SYN: alveolar i. (1).
- health status i. set of measurements designed to detect short-term fluctuations in health of members of a population; the measurements usually include physical function, emotional well-being, activities of daily living, feelings, etc.
- international sensitivity i. (ISI) the slope of the line of best fit relating the log prothrombin time obtained with a standard reagent to the log prothrombin time obtained with the working reagent for both normal and patients who receive stable oral anticoagulant therapy; the standard reagents used for this value assignment are reference preparations calibrated against the World Health Organization standard reagent. SEE ALSO: international normalized ratio.
- iron i. an obsolete i. of iron obtained by dividing the figure for the average content of iron in normal blood (42.74 mg) by the red cell count in millions; it normally varies between 8 and 9; in pernicious anemia, the i. is usually greater than 10, but it tends to be normal in chronic secondary anemia.
- karyopyknotic i. an i. used to monitor the hormonal status of the patient as reflected by exfoliated vaginal cells and their morphology; an expression of the percentage of intermediate and superficial cells from squamous cells of vaginal epithelium which have pyknotic nuclei.
- length-breadth i. SYN: cephalic i..
- leukopenic i. a significant decrease in the white blood count after ingestion of food to which a patient is hypersensitive, a count made during the normal fasting state being used as the basis for evaluation of the postprandial count.
- maturation i. an i. indicating the degree of maturation attained by the vaginal epithelium as adjudged by the cell types being exfoliated; serves as an objective means of evaluating hormonal secretion or response; represents the percentage of parabasal cells/intermediate cells/superficials, in that order; “shift to the left” indicates more immature cells on the surface (atrophy), while “shift to the right” indicates more mature epithelium.
- metacarpal i. the average ratio of length to breadth of metacarpals II to V; this ratio is increased in the Marfan syndrome.
- mitotic i. the ratio of cells in a tissue that are undergoing mitosis, often expressed as either the number of cells in a specified area of tissue section or as a percentage of the total cell sample.
- nasal i. relation of the greatest width of the nasal aperture to the length of a line from the nasion to the lower border of the nasal aperture : (nasal width × 100)/nasal height.
- opsonic i. a value that indicates the relative content of opsonin in the blood of a person with an infectious disease, as evaluated in vitro in comparison with presumably normal blood; the opsonic i. is calculated from the following equation : phagocytic i. of normal serum ÷ phagocytic i. of test serum = 1 ÷ x, where x represents the opsonic i..
- orbital i. relation of the height of the orbit to its width : (orbital height × 100)/orbital width.
- orbitonasal i. the ratio of the width between the lateral angles of the eyes, measured with a tape measure passing over the root of the nose times 100, to the width between the lateral angles of the eyes measured with a caliper.
- palatomaxillary i. relation of the palatomaxillary width, measured between the outer borders of the alveolar arch just above the middle of the second molar tooth, and the palatomaxillary length, measured from the alveolar point to the middle of a transverse line touching the posterior borders of the two maxillae: (palatomaxillary width × 100)/palatomaxillary length; it notes the varying forms of the dental arcade and palate. SYN: palatal i., palatine i..
- pelvic i. the ratio of the conjugate of the pelvic inlet to the transverse diameters of the pelvis : (conjugate of pelvic inlet × 100)/transverse diameter.
- phagocytic i. the average number of bacteria or other particles observed in the cytoplasm of polymorphonuclear leukocytes or other phagocytic cells after mixing and incubating, at 37°C. It may reflect either the average number of particles ingested or the rate at which particles are cleared from either the blood or a culture.
- Pirquet i. an obsolete method of establishing the presence of malnutrition by dividing the weight (grams/10) by the sitting height (in cm); the cube root of the quotient if < 0.945 was considered as indicating malnutrition.
- PMA i. an i. which measures the presence or absence of gingival inflammation as occurring on the papillae or the marginal or attached gingivae.
- pulsatility i. calculation of Doppler measurements of systolic and diastolic velocities in the uterine, umbilical, or fetal circulations.
- refractive i. (n) the relative velocity of light in another medium compared to the velocity in air; e.g., in the case of air to crown glass, n = 1.52; in the case of air to water, n = 1.33. SEE ALSO: law of refraction.
- root caries i. the ratio of the number of teeth with carious lesions of the root, and/or restorations of the root, to the number of teeth with exposed root surfaces.
- sacral i. a ratio obtained by multiplying the greatest breadth of the sacrum by 100 and dividing by the length.
- saturation i. an indication of the relative concentration of hemoglobin in the red blood cells, calculated as: grams of hemoglobin per 100 ml (expressed as percent of normal) ÷ hematocrit value (expressed as percent of normal) = saturation i. The normal i. for adults and infants is 0.97 to 1.02; in primary and secondary anemia, the i. is usually considerably less than 0.97.
- shock i. the quotient of the cardiac rate divided by the systolic blood pressure; normally approximately 0.5, but in shock ( e.g., rising pulse rate with falling blood pressure), the i. may reach 1.0.
- short increment sensitivity i. a measure of the ability to detect small (1dB) increments in intensity; with cochlear lesions, this ability exceeds normal.
- small increment sensitivity i. SISI test.
- spiro-i. spiro- i..
- splenic i. a rough indication of the salubrity, or the reverse, in regard to malaria of a particular district, judged by the relative absence or prevalence of enlarged spleens among the population.
- staphyloopsonic i. the opsonic i. calculated in relation to a staphylococcal infection, with a young culture of Staphylococcus aureus or the strain of staphylococcus from the patient being used in the test.
- stroke work i. a measure of the work done by the heart with each contraction, adjusted for body surface area; equal to the stroke volume of the heart multiplied by the arterial pressure and divided by body surface area; the normal stroke work i. does not exceed 40 g-m per m2.
- therapeutic i. the ratio of LD50 to ED50, used in quantitative comparison of drugs.
- thoracic i. anteroposterior diameter of the thorax times 100 divided by the transverse diameter of the thorax. SYN: chest i..
- tibiofemoral i. the ratio obtained by multiplying the length of the tibia by 100 and dividing by the length of the femur.
- transversovertical i. SYN: vertical i..
- tuberculoopsonic i. the opsonic i. calculated in relation to tuberculous infection, with an actively growing culture of Mycobacterium tuberculosis or the strain of tubercle bacillus from the patient being used in the test.
- ultraviolet i. a daily i. issued by the U.S. National Weather Service for many cities, forecasting the amount of dangerous ultraviolet light that will arrive at the earth's surface about noon the following day.
- vertical i. the relation of the height to the length of the skull : (height × 100)/length. SYN: height-length i., length-height i., transversovertical i..
- volume i. an indication of the relative size ( e.g., volume) of erythrocytes, calculated as follows: hematocrit value, expressed as per cent of normal ÷ red blood cell count, expressed as per cent of normal = volume i..
- zygomaticoauricular i. the ratio between the zygomatic and the auricular diameters of the skull or head.
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1) index finger
2) a list (as of bibliographical information or citations to a body of literature) arranged usu. in alphabetical order of some specified datum (as author, subject, or keyword) <Index Medicus of the U.S. National Library of Medicine>
3 a) a ratio or other number derived from a series of observations and used as an indicator or measure (as of a condition, property, or phenomenon) <physiochemical \indexes of the urine, the blood, and the gastric juice (Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc.)>
b) the ratio of one dimension of a thing (as an anatomical structure) to another dimension see CEPHALIC INDEX, CRANIAL INDEX
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in·dex (inґdeks) pl. indexes or indices [L. “that which points out,†from indicare] 1. [TA] the second digit of the hand, the finger adjacent to the thumb; called also forefinger, index finger, and digitus secundus (II) manus [TA alternative]. 2. a unitless quantity, usually a ratio of two measurable quantities having the same dimensions, or such a ratio multiplied by 100. 3. a core or mold used in dentistry to record or maintain the relative position of a tooth or teeth to one another and/or to a cast, to ensure reproduction in the dental prosthesis of their original position. 4. a directory, in particular an alphabetized list of terms, each term accompanied by page numbers or other notations telling where it appears in a given work or set of works. 5. a subscript, as in xi, used to indicate that there is a collection of objects, one corresponding to each value of the subscript, with the sequence indexed by i. For example, the sequence x1, x2, x3, … can be written xi, i = 1, 2, 3, … .Medical dictionary. 2011.