hot spot (redirected from hotspot)

spot (spot) a circumscribed area; a small blemish; a macula.

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Bitot's spots  foamy gray, triangular spots of keratinized epithelium on the conjunctiva, associated with vitamin A deficiency.

blind spot 

1. optic disk.

2. mental scotoma.

café au lait spots  macules of a distinctive light brown color, such as occur in neurofibromatosis and Albright's syndrome.

cherry-red spot  the choroid appearing as a red circular area surrounded by gray-white retina, as viewed through the fovea centralis in Tay-Sachs disease.

cold spot  see temperature s's.

cotton-wool spots  white or gray soft-edged opacities in the retina, seen in hypertensive retinopathy, lupus erythematosus, and other conditions.

Forschheimer spots  a fleeting exanthem consisting of discrete rose spots on the soft palate sometimes seen in rubella just prior to the onset of the skin rash.

germinal spot  the nucleolus of an oocyte.

hot spot 

1. see temperature s's.

2. the sensitive area of a neuroma.

3. an area of increased density on an x-ray or thermographic film.

Koplik's spots  irregular, bright red spots on the buccal and lingual mucosa, with tiny bluish-white specks in the center of each; seen in the prodromal stage of measles.

liver spot 

1. a lay term for any of the brownish spots on the face, neck, or backs of the hands in many older people.

2. (pl.) tinea versicolor.

Mariotte's spot  optic disk.

milky spots  aggregations of macrophages in the subserous connective tissue of the pleura and peritoneum.

mongolian spot  a smooth, brown to grayish blue nevus, consisting of an excess of melanocytes, typically found at birth in the sacral region in Asians and dark-skinned races; it usually disappears during childhood.

pain spots  spots on the skin where alone the sense of pain can be produced by a stimulus.

rose spots  an eruption of rose-colored spots on the abdomen and thighs during the first seven days of typhoid fever.

Roth's spots  round or oval white spots sometimes seen in the retina early in the course of subacute bacterial endocarditis.

Soemmering's spot  macula lutea.

Tardieu's spots  spots of ecchymosis under the pleura after death by suffocation.

temperature spots  spots on the skin normally anesthetic to pain and pressure but sensitive respectively to heat and cold.

yellow spot  macula retinae.

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hot spot

n.

A region in a gene in which there is a high rate of mutation. Its existence depends on the size of the region concerned, the readiness with which the mutation can be detected, and the possibility that selection against mutants at that point is less than that against mutants elsewhere.

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hot spot,

1 a site in a gene sequence at which mutations occur with an unusually high frequency.

2 an area on a nuclear medicine image that represents an abnormally high absorption of radiation.

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hot spot

Epidemiology A region with a marked ↑ of a particular disease–eg, HIV infection among disenfranchised inner-city inhabitants. See Designer antibodies.