Para

PARA, prefix (Greek), meaning 'near', 'alongside'; used in medical terminology to indicate the presence of certain formations or processes in tissues topographically close to a particular organ. For example, when speaking of pararenalitis, one means inflammation of the perirenal adipose tissue; when speaking of parametritis, one implies inflammation of the cellular tissue of the broad ligaments, etc. The prefix P. is often used to give chronological indications for a particular process, to emphasize the proximity of the latter to the primary, causative suffering. For example, one speaks of parapneumonic pleurisy when wanting to indicate the coexistence of two phenomena, pneumonia and pleurisy, as opposed to metapneumonic pleurisy, where one wants to emphasize the separateness and sequence of the same phenomena in time (pleurisy after pneumonia). However, the prefix P. is not always used in accordance with what has been said. Thus, when speaking of parasyphilitic conditions, one usually means metasyphilis, i.e., syphilitic diseases in the late stages of syphilis. The same prefix sometimes indicates a particular characteristic of a substance or phenomenon that fundamentally distinguishes these substances or phenomena from those already well known in medicine and biology; for example, parahormones, paraagglutination, paravaccine, parakeratosis, paramucin, etc.