tabes

/'teibi:z/

Thân thiện

The patient's tabes was evident in his gaunt frame and hollow cheeks.

Definition

Noun: 1. A progressive wasting or emaciation of the body, especially during the course of a chronic disease. This term is primarily used in medical contexts to describe a state of physical decline and atrophy.

Usage

• Tabes is a technical, medical term. It is most commonly encountered in historical medical literature or in specific compound terms.
• It is an uncountable noun.
• Example: "The patient's advanced condition was marked by severe tabes."

Examples

• The chronic infection led to a state of general tabes.
• In the late stages of the illness, tabes was evident from the profound muscle wasting.

Advanced Usage

• Tabes dorsalis: A specific neurological disorder, a form of neurosyphilis, characterized by the degeneration of the dorsal columns of the spinal cord, leading to poor coordination and sensory deficits. This is the most frequent modern use of the root word "tabes."
  • Example: "The classic symptoms of tabes dorsalis include sharp pains and an unsteady gait."

Variants and Related Words

• Tabetic (adjective): Pertaining to or affected by tabes, especially tabes dorsalis.
  • Example: "The patient exhibited tabetic arthropathy."
• Tabescence (noun): The process or condition of wasting away.

Synonyms

• Emaciation: The state of being abnormally thin or weak.
• Atrophy: The wasting away or decrease in size of a body part or tissue.
• Consumption: An old-fashioned term for a wasting disease, especially pulmonary tuberculosis.

Notes on Meaning

The core meaning of tabes is a specific type of bodily wasting associated with disease. Its use as a standalone term is now rare in modern clinical language, having been largely replaced by more precise descriptors like "cachexia" (wasting syndrome) or "atrophy." Its primary contemporary relevance is within the fixed compound tabes dorsalis.

Học thuật

Noun

1. wasting of the body during a chronic disease