diathesis (di-ath'e-sis)

A congenital or acquired condition of body predisposing to some particular constitutional disease or to certain local manifestations of disease. A term at present but little used, bilious d. An old name for a morbid condition of the body characterized by a supposed superabundance of bile, cancerous d. See cancerous cachexia, under cachexia, catarrhal d. A morbid condition of the body characterized by an exce of mucous liquids, diabetic d. Of Bazin, a condition of the body favoring the production of sugar in the liquids of the body. d. hemorrhagic a. See hemophilia, gouty d. A disposition to gouty affections, hemorrhagic d. See hemophilia, neuropathic d. A hereditary predisposition to the development of diffuse or systematic affections of the nervous system, which transmit themselves by way of heredity, either integrally or in transforming themselves. phthisical d. A tendency to pulmonary tuberculosis, psychopathic d. A tendency to mental disease, rheumatic d. A constitutional tendency to rheumatic affections. Still used by English writers. tuberculous d. A predisposition to the growth of tubercle, uric acid d. A constitutional tendency to the formation of an exce of uric acid within the body. [Gr., diatithesthai, to be disposed.]