Effacement is the shortening, or thinning, of a
tissue.
It can refer to
cervical effacement Cervical effacement or cervical ripening refers to a thinning of the cervix.
Background
Cervical effacement is a component of the Bishop score and can be expressed as a percentage.
Prior to effacement, the cervix is like a long bottleneck, usu ...
. It can also refer to a process occurring in
podocyte
Podocytes are cells in Bowman's capsule in the kidneys that wrap around capillaries of the glomerulus. Podocytes make up the epithelial lining of Bowman's capsule, the third layer through which filtration of blood takes place. Bowman's capsule f ...
s in
nephrotic syndrome
Nephrotic syndrome is a collection of symptoms due to kidney damage. This includes protein in the urine, low blood albumin levels, high blood lipids, and significant swelling. Other symptoms may include weight gain, feeling tired, and foamy ...
.
In
histopathology
Histopathology (compound of three Greek words: ''histos'' "tissue", πάθος ''pathos'' "suffering", and -λογία '' -logia'' "study of") refers to the microscopic examination of tissue in order to study the manifestations of disease. Sp ...
, it refers to the near obliteration of a tissue, as in the normal
parenchyma
Parenchyma () is the bulk of functional substance in an animal organ or structure such as a tumour. In zoology it is the name for the tissue that fills the interior of flatworms.
Etymology
The term ''parenchyma'' is New Latin from the word π ...
of tissues in the case of some cancers.
References
Tissues (biology)
{{pathology-stub