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Information about Chronic (medicine)

In medicine, a chronic disease is a disease that is long-lasting or recurrent. The term chronic describes the course of the disease, or its rate of onset and development. A chronic course is distinguished from a recurrent course; recurrent diseases relapse repeatedly, with periods of remission in between. As an adjective, chronic can refer to a persistent and lasting medical condition. Chronicity is usually applied to a condition that lasts more than three months. Diabetes is a good example.

As of October 7 2007, approximately 1,299,010 people have died from a chronic disease this year.

The definition of a disease or causative condition may depend on the disease being chronic, and the term chronic will often, but not always appear in the description:

Chronic as a metaphor

The term "chronic" is often used as a figure of speech, comparing a problem to a chronic disease; one of the more common uses is chronic inflation (in macroeconomics).

See also

Medicine is the science and "" of maintaining and/or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of patients. The term is derived from the Latin ars medicina meaning the art of healing.
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disease is an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs bodily functions. In human beings, "disease" is often used more broadly to refer to any condition that causes discomfort, dysfunction, distress, social problems, and/or death to the person afflicted, or similar problems
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In medicine, a course of medication is a period of continuous treatment with a drug, sometimes with variable dosage. Treatment with some drugs should not end abruptly. Instead, their course should end with a tapering dosage.
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In medicine, a course of medication is a period of continuous treatment with a drug, sometimes with variable dosage. Treatment with some drugs should not end abruptly. Instead, their course should end with a tapering dosage.
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Recurrence and recurrent may refer to:
  • Recurrence relation, an equation which defines a sequence recursively
  • Poincaré recurrence theorem, Henri Poincaré's theorem on dynamical systems
  • Recurrence plot, a statistical plot that shows a pattern that re-occurs

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For the record label, see Relapse Records.


A relapse (etymologically, "who falls again") occurs when a person is affected again by a condition that affected them in the past.
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Remission may refer to:
  • Remission (medicine), the state of absence of disease activity in patients with a chronic illness, with the possibility of return of disease activity.
  • Remission (spectroscopy), the reflection or scattering of light by a material.

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MeSH D001168 Arthritis (from Greek arthro-, joint + -itis, inflammation; plural: arthritides) is a group of conditions where there is damage caused to the joints of the body. Arthritis is the leading cause of disability in people over the age of 55.
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Chronic fatigue syndrome/ myalgic encephalomyelitis
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 G 93.3
ICD-9 780.71

DiseasesDB 1645
MedlinePlus 001244
eMedicine med/3392   ped/2795
MeSH D015673 Chronic fatigue syndrome (
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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 J 40. - J 44. , J 47.
ICD-9 490 - 496

OMIM 606963
DiseasesDB 2672
MedlinePlus 000091
eMedicine med/373   emerg/99

MeSH C08.381.495.
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MeSH D007676 Chronic kidney disease (CKD), also know as chronic renal disease, is a progressive loss of renal function over a period of months or years through five stages.
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Hepatitis
Classification & external resources

Alcoholic hepatitis evident by fatty change, cell necrosis, Mallory bodies
ICD-10 K 75.9
ICD-9 573.3

DiseasesDB 20061

MeSH D006505 Hepatitis (plural hepatitides
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Leukemia
Classification & external resources

A Wright's stained bone marrow aspirate smear of patient with precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
ICD-10 C 91. -C 95.
ICD-9 208.
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Lupus Erythematosus
Classification & external resources

ICD-10 L 93. , M 32.
ICD-9 710.0

OMIM 152700
DiseasesDB 12782
MedlinePlus 000435
eMedicine med/2228   emerg/564
MeSH D008180

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (
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Orthostatic intolerance (OI) is a subcategory of Dysautonomia, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system. [1]

OI can also be defined as "the development of symptoms during upright standing relieved by recumbency," or by sitting back down again.
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A figure of speech, sometimes termed a rhetoric, or elocution, is a word or phrase that departs from straightforward, literal language. Figures of speech are often used and crafted for emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use.
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Chronic inflation is characterized by much higher price increases than ordinary inflation, at annual rates of 10% to 30% in some industrialized nations and even 100% or more in a few developing countries.
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Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, and behavior of a national economy as a whole.[1] Macroeconomists seek to understand the determinants of aggregate trends in an economy with particular focus on national income,
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In medicine, an acute disease is a disease with either or both of:
  1. a rapid onset;
  2. a short course (as opposed to a chronic course).


This adjective is part of the definition of several diseases and is, therefore, incorporated in their name, for instance,
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Chronic pain was originally defined as pain that has lasted 6 months or longer. More recently it has been defined as pain that persists longer than the temporal course of natural healing, associated with a particular type of injury or disease process.
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In medicine, a course of medication is a period of continuous treatment with a drug, sometimes with variable dosage. Treatment with some drugs should not end abruptly. Instead, their course should end with a tapering dosage.
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Disease management (DM) is the concept of reducing healthcare costs and/or improving quality of life for individuals with chronic disease conditions by preventing or minimizing the effects of a disease, or chronic condition through integrative care.
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