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apheresis |
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apheresis (əfĕr`əsĭs), or hemapheresis (hē'məfĕr`əsĭs), any procedure in which blood blood, fluid pumped by the heart that circulates throughout the body via the arteries, veins, and capillaries (see circulatory system ; heart ). An adult male of average size normally has about 6 quarts (5.6 liters) of blood. ..... Click the link for more information. is drawn from a donor or patient and a component (platelets, plasma plasma, in physics, fully ionized gas of low density, containing approximately equal numbers of positive and negative ions (see electron and ion ). It is electrically conductive and is affected by magnetic fields. ..... Click the link for more information. , or white blood cells) is separated out, the remaining blood components being returned to the body. Apheresis allows the donor's blood volume to replenish itself much more quickly than whole blood donation. One type of apheresis, plasmapheresis, is commonly used in commercial blood banks. In plasmapheresis the plasma (the liquid portion of the blood) is separated from donated blood, the red blood cells being returned to the donor. In some diseases, such as myasthenia gravis myasthenia gravis (mīəsthē`nēə grä`vĭs) ..... Click the link for more information. , plasmapheresis is used to attempt to remove the disease-causing substances from the blood. How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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From the same team that brought you ``Walking With Dinosaurs'' and ``Walking With Prehistoric Beasts,'' ``Cavemen'' takes the viewer on an eight-million-year journey from the more-ape-than-human Lucy (an Australopithecus aphaeresis, when her skull was found she was named after the song playing on the radio at the time, ``Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds'') to a mere 30,000 or 40,000 years ago when Neanderthals died out and Homo sapiens became the dominant species. Classier examples are apheresis instead of aphaeresis and dieresis instead of diaeresis. |
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