Potential
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Potential (Medicine)
Potential (pronounced poh-TEN-shul) in the field of medicine refers to the capacity or ability of a system, organ, or cell to perform or produce. It is derived from the Latin word "potentia", meaning power or ability.
Types of Potential
There are several types of potential in medicine, including:
- Action Potential: The change in electrical potential associated with the passage of an impulse along the membrane of a muscle cell or nerve cell.
- Resting Potential: The electrical potential of a neuron or muscle cell at rest, i.e., when it is not conducting an impulse.
- Graded Potential: A shift in the electrical potential that has an amplitude proportional to stimulus strength and that decreases with distance as it spreads along the surface of a cell membrane.
Related Terms
- Membrane Potential: The difference in electric potential between the interior and the exterior of a biological cell.
- Threshold Potential: The critical level to which a membrane potential must be depolarized to initiate an action potential.
- Reversal Potential: The membrane potential at which a given ion has no net flow across the membrane.
See Also
References
- Medical Dictionary. (n.d.). Potential. In Medical Dictionary. Retrieved from https://www.medical-dictionary.com/potential
External links
- Medical encyclopedia article on Potential
- Wikipedia's article - Potential
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