homovanillic

9.9

Relating to homovanillic acid, a chemical found in the body

adjective
/ˌhoʊmoʊvæˈnɪlɪk/

Specialized

: homovanílico

In the study, participants' urine was analyzed for homovanillic acid to assess metabolic processes.

Examples

All 476,603 children born in the province of Quebec during the 5-year period from May 1, 1989, to April 30, 1994, were eligible for urinary assay of homovanillic acid and vanillylmandelic acid at 3 weeks and 6 months of age.

Academic text (1996)
Using state-of-the-art methodology and a compliance rate similar to that in Japan, we found that most children with neuroblastoma will not be detected by the examination of their urine for vanillylmandelic and homovanillic acids, up to 6 months of age, including children diagnosed with neuroblastoma over 1 year who do poorly.

Academic text (1996)
The doctor's test results indicated elevated levels of homovanillic acid, suggesting possible health issues that need further investigation.
Research on homovanillic compounds has shown their importance in understanding certain neurological disorders.

Surface Forms

homovanillic positive

Morphology

homovanillic = vanillic (opaque) = homo + vanillic

A technical chemical formation where 'homo-' denotes a homologous relation to vanillic acid; this is specialised terminology not inferable by an average B1 learner from the parts.

Etymology

Homovanillic starts with homo- ('same') and ends with vanillic, which comes from vanilla and the chemical vanillin, so think of the vanilla molecule. A helpful way to remember it is that the name points to a specific chemical like that vanilla-related molecule, so homovanillic means 'relating to homovanillic acid', a compound found in the body.