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Capital A: Medical Abbreviation
The capital "A" is an abbreviation for the following in the
field of medicine:
1. Ampere, which is a measure of electrical flow.
2. Alanine, which is a type of amino acid. Amino acids are
groups of chemical substances that form proteins.
Proteins are extremely complex, naturally occurring
substances made of amino acids that are essential to the
body's structure and function.
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3. Alanyl, which is a radical of alanine. Radicals (with few exceptions) do not occur
naturally in nature. Radicals are atoms or group of atoms that contain an unpaired
electron. An atom is the smallest part of a substance that can exist and still possess all of
the properties that are characteristic of the substance. An electron is a negatively
charged particle.
4. Adenine, which is a type of purine. Purine is any one of a large group of nitrogen
containing compounds. Nitrogen is a gaseous, nonmetallic element.
5. Adenosine, which is one of the building blocks of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and RNA
(ribonucleic acid). DNA is a chain of many connected genes. Genes contain coded
instructions for how proteins should be constructed and how certain bodily characteristics
should develop. RNA is a chemical substance that is important in building up proteins.
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6. Adenylic acid (aka adenosine monophosphate), which is a
nucleotide found in RNA. A nucleotide is a building block of RNA that
contains nitrogen, phosphate (a type of salt), and sugar.
7. Anterior, which means the front.
8. Anesthesia, which is the absence of sensation.
is the center part of the body.
10. Accommodation, which is the state or process of adjusting one thing or set of things to another. It is
frequently used as a reference to the lens of the eye, which changes in shape (i.e., accommodates) in
response different distances.
11. Atomic weight, which is the amount of matter in an atom.
12. Absolute temperature, which is temperature that is measured from a reference point of an absolute
zero. Temperature scales with an absolute zero are the Kelvin scale and the Rankin scale. Celsius and
Fahrenheit do not have an absolute zero.
13. Arterial, meaning referring to arteries. Arteries are blood vessels which carry blood away from the
heart.
14. When used as a subscript like this: (A), it refers to alveolar gas. Alveolar gas is the gas in the alveoli.
Alveoli are tiny sacs where gases are exchanged in the lungs so that breathing can take place.
15. The first substrate in a multi-substrate enzyme-catalyzed reaction. A substrate is a substance acted
on and changed by an enzyme. Multi-substrate means there is more than one substrate. An enzyme is a
type of protein that helps produce chemical reactions in the body. The term "enzyme-catalyzed reaction"
means that an enzyme started the reaction. The word "catalyzed" refers to a catalyst which is something
(in this case, the enzyme) that starts a chemical reactions but is not consumed by the reaction or
permanently changed by it.
