perfuse

English

Etymology

From 1520s, from Latin perfusus, past participle of perfundo (“I pour over, besprinkle”) from per- + fundo (“I pour”) (from nasalised form of PIE root *gheu- ("to pour")); compare diffuse, suffuse.

Verb

perfuse (third-person singular simple present perfuses, present participle perfusing, simple past and past participle perfused)

1. (transitive) To permeate or suffuse something, especially with a liquid or with light.
   • 2001, Neena Washington, Clive Washington, Clive Wilson, Physiological Pharmaceutics: Barriers to Drug Absorption, 2nd edition, Taylor & Francis, page 30:

     Tissues can be broadly classified as poorly-perfused, adequately perfused and well-perfused on this basis as shown in Table 2.1. Note how organs with a relatively small mass, such as the heart and brain, only require a modest blood flow to perfuse them well.

   • 2010, Andrew J. Rosenfeld, Sharon M. Dial, Clinical Pathology for the Veterinary Team‎^[1], Wiley (Wiley-Blackwell), page 191:

     As a patient has decreased ability to perfuse tissue, conversion of glucose into carbon dioxide and energy in the cellular level is also decreased.

   • 1989, Klaus Berwing, Martin Schlepper, Peter Kremer, Hassan Bahavar, “Clinical trials with a new myocardial contrast agent”, in Samuel Meerbaum, Richard S. Meltzer, editors, Myocardial Contrast Two-dimensional Echocardiography, Kluwer Academic, page 165:

     The right coronary artery system perfused the inferior and infero-septal regions in 89% of the patients, identified with a right dominant system. The anterolateral papillary muscle was perfused from the left coronary system in all cases.

2. (transitive) To force a fluid to flow over or through something, especially through an organ of the body.
   • 1985, William de Ruhe et al., “14: Release of Arginine Vasopressin from the Brain”, in Alejandro Bayón, René Drucker-Colín, editors, In VIVO Perfusion and Release of Neroactive substances: Methods and Strategies, Academic Press, page 240:

     When AVP was perfused into punctate regions in the brain of the sheep or rabbit, the pyrogen-induced fever was suppressed.

   • 2001, Alan B. R. Thomson, Gary Wild, Lipid Absorption and the Unstirred layers, Charles M. Mansbach II, Patrick Tso, Arnis Kuksis (editors), Intestinal Lipid Metabolism, Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers, page 140,

     The change in the ratio of the uptake of xylose and urea could not be explained just by an alteration in UWL resistance or by a change in the laminar flow properties of the perfused fluid.

   • 2009, Domenico Ribatti, History of Research on Tumor Angiogenesis, Springer, page 5:

     To test which solution was optimal for tissue survival, they perfused these solutions through the vasculature of canine thyroid glands, by using an apparatus with a silicone rubber oxygenator (Fig. 1.3).

Related terms

• perfusable
• perfusion

Translations

to permeate or suffuse

• Bulgarian: обливам (bg) (oblivam)
• Finnish: virrata läpi
• German: durchströmen, perfundieren (de)

Anagrams

• frees up

Latin

Participle

perfūse

1. vocative masculine singular of perfūsus

References

• “perfuse”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• perfuse in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.