Health Library

Walking Pneumonia in Children
Mycoplasma pneumoniae is extremely common in school-aged children. It's the most common cause of pneumonia in this age group.

Warning Signs During Pregnancy
Call your health care provider immediately if you have bleeding from the vagina, blurry vision, severe headaches, or other specific symptoms.

Warts in Children
Detailed information on the most common types of warts, including foot warts, flat warts, genital warts, and filiform warts

Watch Your Weight
If your weight is not in the healthy range for your height and build, the best way to lose weight is to set a reasonable goal and lose it slowly and gradually.

Water Safety for Parents
Whether you decided to have your baby boy circumcised or not, it’s important to know how to care for his special needs. Find tips for caring for both circumcised and uncircumcised babies.

WBC count
This test measures the number of white blood cells in your blood. When you get sick, your white blood cell count is higher than normal because your body is releasing more of these cells to fight the infection.

Wegener’s Granulomatosis
Wegener’s granulomatosis is a condition of the immune system that causes swelling and irritation in blood vessels and other tissues. This inflammation reduces or stops the flow of blood to organs in the body.

Weight Gain During Pregnancy
Average weight gain for women is between 25 and 35 pounds, although slight deviations from this may also be considered normal.

Well-Care Visits
Detailed information on well-care visits and children, including when well-care visits should be scheduled

West Nile Virus
Detailed information on West Nile virus, including symptoms, prevention, and treatment

West Nile Virus Antibody (Blood)
This is a blood test that checks for West Nile virus, an infection that usually affects birds. It can be spread to people through the bite of an infected mosquito.

West Nile Virus in Children
Detailed information on West Nile virus, including symptoms, prevention, and treatment

Western Equine Encephalitis
This tests looks for the virus that causes Western equine encephalitis, an infection spread to people through bites from infected mosquitoes.

Wet Lungs
Transient tachypnea of the newborn is a term for a mild respiratory problem of babies that begins after birth and lasts about three days.

What Are Platelets?
If one of your blood vessels gets damaged, it sends out signals that are picked up by platelets. The platelets then rush to the site of damage and form a plug, or clot, to repair the damage.

What Are Red Blood Cells?
Red blood cells play an important role in your health by carrying fresh oxygen throughout the body. The oxygen gives your blood its bright red color.

What Are Stem Cells?
Stem cells are special human cells that have the ability to develop into many different cell types, from muscle cells to brain cells. In some cases, they also have the ability to repair damaged tissues.

What Are White Blood Cells?
Think of white blood cells as your immunity cells. In a sense, they are continually at war. They flow through your bloodstream to battle viruses, bacteria, and other foreign invaders that threaten your health.

What Is a Gluten-Free Diet?
Many people are reducing or eliminating their dietary intake of gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and some other grains. But only those who have celiac disease need to completely stop eating gluten.

What Is Plasma?
White blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets are essential to body function, but plasma also plays a crucial, and mostly unrecognized, job, carrying these blood components throughout the body as the fluid in which they travel.

What To Do If You Get Sick While Traveling
Detailed information on how to respond if you become ill or injured while traveling

When to Call For Help
Detailed information on when to call for help in an emergency situation

When Your Baby Needs a Test, Procedure, or Surgery
Talk with your baby’s health care provider about being present as much as possible for the test or procedure. Child development experts say it’s best to keep to a minimum the amount of time your child is separated from you at this age.

When Your School-Aged Child Needs a Test, Procedure, or Surgery
By age 7 or 8, school-aged children are starting to develop coping skills as they think more logically and begin to understand cause and effect—if this happens, then that may happen. This way of thinking helps them find ways to cope with scary or stressful experiences.

When Your Teen Needs a Test, Procedure, or Surgery
During the adolescent years, abstract thinking begins and teens can fully understand how parts of the body function, the medical problem he or she is experiencing, and the reason for the test, procedure, or surgery.

When Your Toddler or Preschooler Needs a Test, Procedure, or Surgery
Your toddler or preschooler is able to grasp on some level what is going on if you keep explanations simple and short.

Whiplash Injury
Whiplash is an injury caused by the neck bending forcibly forward and then backward, or vice versa. The injury usually involves the muscles, discs, nerves, and tendons in the neck.

White Blood Cell (Stool)
This test looks for white blood cells in your stool. This can help your doctor figure out what's causing inflammatory diarrhea.

White blood cell antigens
This test looks for a certain protein made by your immune system. The test can help tell whether you have an autoimmune disease.

White Cell Count
This test measures the number of white blood cells in your blood. When you get sick, your white blood cell count is higher than normal because your body is releasing more of these cells to fight the infection.

Whitening, Teeth
Detailed information on teeth bleaching, including potential risks and side effects

Whooping Cough (Pertussis)
Whooping cough, or pertussis, mainly affects infants and young children. It is characterized by intense coughing spells that end with a characteristic whoop as air is inhaled.

Whooping cough antibody test
This test checks for Bordetella pertussis antibodies in your blood. B. pertussis are the bacteria that cause pertussis, or whooping cough.

Wilms Tumor
Detailed information on Wilms tumor, including causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment

Wilson Disease
If you have Wilson disease, a mutation, or defect, in your ATP7B gene prevents your body from properly getting rid of extra copper in your system.

Wisdom Teeth Extraction
Because most mouths are too small for the four additional molars called wisdom teeth, these teeth usually must be extracted.

Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome
Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW) is a type of abnormal heartbeat. If you have WPW, you may have episodes of tachycardia, when your heart beats very rapidly.

Work and Pregnancy
Most women are able to work safely, in some cases, until the day of delivery, depending on the type of work performed and their condition.

Wound culture
This test looks for certain bacteria in a wound or an infection in a fluid sample. These bacteria are called anaerobic because they don’t need oxygen to grow.

Wound Culture
This test looks for bacteria or other organisms in a wound. The test is used to find out if a wound is infected. It can also identify the type of organism that's causing the infection.

Wrist X-ray
This procedure is often used as the first step in diagnosing injuries of the extremities, but may also be used to evaluate other problems involving the bones and/or soft tissues.