noun
definition
A reduction in the functionality of an organ caused by disease, injury or lack of use.
verb
definition
To wither or waste away.
definition
To cause to waste away or become abortive; to starve or weaken.
Examples of atrophy in a Sentence
Atrophy can be caused by overwork.
Under the head of malformations we place cases of atrophy of parts or general dwarfing, due to starvation, the attacks of Fungi or minute insects, the presence of unsuitable food-materials and so on, as well as cases of transformation of stamens into petals, carpels into leaves, and so forth.
From atrophy of their roots, caused by the pressure of the growing permanent teeth, the " milk teeth " in children become loose and are cast off.
The result was the gradual atrophy of the whole administrative machine.
Muscular atrophy leads to a loss of strength and endurance.
Many Opisthobranchia have by a process of atrophy lost the typical ctenidium and the mantleskirt, and have developed other organs in their place.
The atrophy of the Ottoman sea-power had left the archipelago at the mercy of the Greek war-brigs; piracy flourished; and it became essential in the interests of the commerce of all nations to make some power responsible for the policing of the narrow seas.
In Dictyota the unfertilized oosphere is found to be capable of undergoing a limited number of divisions, but the body thus formed appears to atrophy sooner or later.
This is followed by the atrophy of many of the larval organs, including the brain, the sense-organ and the ciliated ring.
The continued use of large doses of alcohol produces chronic gastritis, in which the continued irritation has led to overgrowth of connective tissue, atrophy of the gastric glands and permanent cessation of the gastric functions.
Mention should also be made of the partial or complete atrophy of the eyes in many Crustacea which live in darkness, either in the deep sea or in subterranean habitats.
In other species the large individuals have become purely female by atrophy of the male organs, and are entirely dependent on the dwarf males for fertilization.
Patients may progress to vision loss through progressive atrophy of the macular tissue.
When a muscle is not exercised, it begins to weaken and atrophy.
Eliminating their need can cause these muscles to atrophy.
This factor creates a domino effect of muscles being to atrophy and it becoming consequently harder to exercise.
Similarly with Anemone infested with Puccinia and Vacciniusn with Catyptospora, and many other cases of deformations due to hypertrophy or atrophy.
The variety of special developments of structure accompanying the atrophy of typical organs in the Opisthobranchia and general degeneration of organization is very great.
They will hold their arms over their heads until the muscles atrophy, will keep their fists clenched till the nails grow through the palms, will lie on beds of nails, cut and stab themselves, drag, week after week, enormous chains loaded with masses of iron, or hang themselves before a fire near enough to scorch.
Thus the occurrence of blind animals in caves and in the deep sea was a fact which Darwin himself regarded as best explained by the atrophy of the organ of vision in successive generations through the absence of light and 1 Weismann, Vererbung, &c. (1886).
Mere enlargement of an organ does not imply that it is in a state of hypertrophy, for some of the largest organs met with in morbid anatomy are in a condition of extreme atrophy.
This physiological wasting is termed senile atrophy.
The toxic actions produced in continued fevers, in certain chronic diseases, and by intestinal parasites largely aid in producing degeneration, emaciation and atrophy.
The loss of an eye will be followed by atrophy of the optic nerve; the tissues in a stump of an amputated limb show atrophic changes; a paralysed limb from long disuse shows much wasting; and one finds at great depths of the sea fishes and marine animals, which have almost completely lost the organs of sight, having been cut off for long ages from the stimuli (light) essential for these organs, and so brought into an atrophic condition from disuse.
Increased work thrown on to a tissue may produce hypertrophy, but, if this excessive function be kept up, atrophy will follow; even the blacksmith's arm breaks down owing to the hypertrophic muscle fibres becoming markedly atrophied.
Thus it is laid down in large quantity in cirrhosis of the liver, kidney or lung, and reacts upon these organs by contracting and inducing atrophy.
The swollen waxy capillaries are pressing on the columns of liver cells and are causing marked atrophy.
His name is especially connected with the first description of locomotor ataxy, progressive muscular atrophy, pseudo-hypertrophic paralysis, glosso-labio laryngeal paralysis and other nervous troubles.
When, for instance, the axons of the ganglion cells of the retina are severed by section of the optic nerve, and thus their influence upon the nerve cells of the visual cerebral centres is set aside, the nerve cells of those centres undergo secondary atrophy (Gadden's atrophy).
They agree with the true crabs in not having appendages (uropods) to the sixth segment of the pleon, the atrophy being complete in the Homolidae and Homolodromiidae, whereas in the Dromiidae and Dynomenidae a pair of small plates appear to be vestiges of these organs.
Observations were made on the connexion between thyroid gland and myxoedema, which appeared to show that this disease was dependent upon atrophy of the gland.
It was admitted that these elements might atrophy, or be displaced, or be otherwise obscured; but their complete and symmetrical disposition was regarded as typical and original.
The number of these processes is primitively and normally five, but may become less by atrophy.
Later the affected muscles become exquisitely tender, and then atrophy, while the knee-jerk or other reflex is lost.
By them the old councils were rapidly reduced to a state of atrophy.
Unlike strong topical steroids, studies have shown that tacrolimus ointment does not cause skin atrophy.
The document lists atrophy as a possible surgical implication.
He has bilateral optic nerve atrophy, which affects the visual information passing from the eye to the brain.
Muscle atrophy in rodents is created by suspending the animals by their tails for weeks or months at a time.
We report a patient, FM, with progressive fluent aphasia due to selective atrophy of left temporal cortex.
All results should ideally be zero, as the subjects should not be showing any atrophy.
I also have atrophy scarring on both arms which looks horrible due to long term steroid cream use.
Progressive muscular atrophy is a less common form of MND.
Hippocampal atrophy is usually the most common finding in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy who are surgically treated.
Medial temporal lobe atrophy is well described in AD.
During the final examination the women underwent scans to examine brain atrophy.
I have extensive calcifications throughout the pancreas, scarring and atrophy.
Toxicities included transient periorbital edema in four eyes and optic atrophy in one eye that also received laser photocoagulation and cryotherapy.
Extensive or ' geographic ' atrophy of the retinal pigment epithelium, however, can result in marked visual acuity loss.
What are the surgical implications The histology shows villous atrophy with crypt hyperplasia.