ABPTS PCS key terms

Framework describing human growth and decline across physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domains from conception through death, emphasizing that change is lifelong, multidimensional, and shaped by context and timing.

Age-referenced functional skills such as sitting, walking, or speaking that clinicians compare against norms to screen for delay or deviation in infants and children.

Stereotyped movement present in early infancy that normally integrates as cortical control matures; persistence beyond expected ages may signal neuromotor delay.

The ability to maintain, achieve, or restore stability during static and dynamic tasks by integrating sensory input with anticipatory and reactive motor responses.

Age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass, strength, and function that increases fall risk, disability, and mortality in older adults.

A syndrome of reduced physiologic reserve across multiple systems, leaving an older adult vulnerable to stressors and adverse outcomes such as falls, hospitalization, and functional decline.

Concurrent use of multiple medications, common in older adults, that raises risk of drug interactions, adverse effects, and impaired balance or cognition relevant to rehabilitation.

The body's coordinated regulation of internal conditions such as temperature, pH, and glucose within narrow ranges despite external change.

A control mechanism in which a deviation from a set point triggers responses that reduce the deviation, restoring the regulated variable toward normal.

Regulation of hydrogen ion concentration in body fluids through buffering, respiratory carbon dioxide elimination, and renal bicarbonate handling to keep arterial pH near 7.35 to 7.45.

The volume of blood ejected by one ventricle per contraction; together with heart rate it determines cardiac output.

The volume of blood pumped by the heart per minute, calculated as heart rate multiplied by stroke volume; a key determinant of oxygen delivery during exercise.

The principle that increased ventricular filling stretches cardiac muscle and increases contraction force, raising stroke volume within physiologic limits.

The relationship between air reaching the alveoli and blood flow perfusing them; mismatch impairs gas exchange and produces hypoxemia.

Graph showing hemoglobin oxygen saturation across partial pressures; shifts in position reflect altered affinity from pH, temperature, carbon dioxide, or metabolic byproducts.

A measure of how readily a gas moves from alveolar air into pulmonary capillary blood, reflecting alveolar membrane integrity and capillary blood volume.

An examination approach in which the clinician generates competing diagnostic hypotheses early and selects tests that best confirm or refute each one.

A ranked list of plausible conditions that could explain a patient's presentation, progressively narrowed by history, examination findings, and response to intervention.

A historical or examination finding suggesting serious pathology such as fracture, infection, tumor, or neurologic compromise, prompting referral or modified care.

A validated tool combining specific history and examination variables to estimate the probability of a diagnosis and support standardized decisions.

The proportion of people who truly have a condition and test positive; a highly sensitive test is useful for ruling out disease when negative.

The proportion of people without a condition who test negative; a highly specific test is useful for ruling in disease when positive.

The ratio of the probability of a given test result in people with disease to that in people without disease, used to shift pretest to posttest probability.

A reliability statistic expressing agreement among repeated measurements, commonly used to quantify interrater and intrarater reliability of clinical measures.

An estimate of the typical error in an individual's observed score, used to build confidence intervals around a measurement and judge true change.

The smallest change in score beyond measurement error that can be considered real for an individual with a given confidence level.

The smallest change in an outcome that patients perceive as beneficial and that would justify altering clinical management.

Measurement of joint range of motion in degrees using a goniometer aligned with bony landmarks, with documented reliability depending on joint, method, and examiner training.

Graded assessment of a muscle's ability to generate force against gravity and resistance, scored on an ordinal scale from absent to normal.

Use of a portable force transducer to quantify isometric muscle strength objectively, offering interval-level data with established reliability when standardized.

A standardized instrument or test used to quantify a patient's status or change over time in body function, activity, or participation.

World Health Organization framework organizing health information into body functions and structures, activities, participation, and environmental and personal contextual factors.

A patient-centered rehabilitation goal written to be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound, linking intervention to a defined outcome.

A patient's voluntary authorization of examination or intervention after receiving and understanding information about purpose, risks, benefits, and alternatives.

The ethical principle that patients have the right to make decisions about their own care according to their values, free from coercion.

A clinician's obligation to act in the patient's best interest, placing the patient's welfare above personal or institutional gain.

The legally and professionally defined activities a clinician is authorized to perform based on licensure, training, and jurisdictional regulation.

Clinical decision-making integrating the best available research evidence, clinician expertise, and patient values and circumstances.