bili-, bil-

1. Pertaining to atra bilis, or black bile, a fluid formerly supposed to be produced by the kidneys.
2. Melancholic or hypohondriac; atrabilious; from the supposed predominance of black bile, to the influence of which the ancients attributed hypochondria, melancholy, and mania.

1. Relating to bile or the transporting of bile.
2. Affecting a bile duct or the system of ducts in the liver.
3. A reference to the gallbladder, bile ducts, or bile.

The biliary system itself consists of the gallbladder and bile ducts and, of course, the bile; for example, biliary atresia is the absence or closure of the major bile ducts, the ducts that drain bile from the liver.

The production and excretion of bile.

Containing or carrying bile.

A bile pigment (coloring) found in bile and gallstones.

A name applied to the amorphous, or crystalline, mass obtained from bile by the action of alcohol and ether.

It is composed of a mixture of the sodium salts of the bile acids.

Of or relating to bile.

By extension, bilious means suffering from liver dysfunction; and especially excessive secretion of bile.

Further, by extension, it is indicative of a peevish or ill-natured disposition.

The word bilious goes back to the old belief that there were four bodily humors (black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood) and these four humors determined a person's temperament.

Bilious was the personality type associated with an excess of yellow bile. The word bilious derives from the French bilieux, which in turn came from bilis, the Latin term for "bile".

1. An orange-yellow pigment in the bile that forms as a product of hemoglobin; excess amounts in the blood produce the yellow appearance observed in jaundice.
2. A pigment produced when the liver processes waste products.

A high bilirubin level causes yellowing of the skin.

Treatment with bile or bile salts.

1. A greenish bile pigment that is an intermediate product of the breakdown of hemoglobin in the liver and in turn breaks down to produce bilirubin (pigment produced when the liver processes waste products).
2. A green pigment found in bile which is formed during haem catabolism (when organisms convert substances into excreted compounds), mainly the breaking down of old red blood cells, within the liver.

It transforms into the red-orange bile pigment bilirubin. A high bilirubin level causes yellowing of the skin.

A depression on the visceral surface of the liver anteriorly, between the quadrate and the right lobes, lodging the gallbladder.

An abnormally high level of bilirubin in the blood, manifested by jaundice, anorexia, and malaise, occurring in association with liver disease and certain hemolytic anemias.

A sufficient elevation will produce jaundice. Some degree of hyperbilirubinemia is very common in babies right after birth, especially premies.

A reference to, or designating, an organic acid of the tartaric acid series, distinct from lithofellic acid, but, like it, obtained from certain bile products; such as, bezoar (hard mass) stones.

1. A brown degradation product of hemoglobin, present in the feces.
2. A coloring matter found in the feces, a product of the alteration of the bile pigments in the intestinal canal; identical to hydrobilirubin (body formed from bilirubin*, identical with urobilin*).

*Bilirubin is a pigment produced when the liver processes waste products. A high bilirubin level causes yellowing of the skin.

*Urobilin is also a yellow pigment identical with hydrobilirubin, abundant in the highly colored urine of fever, and also present in normal urine.

Urobilin is a constituent of the brown pigment found in feces; which is derived from bilirubin by reduction due to bacteria in the intestine.

1. A reduction product of stercobilin which occurs in the feces; it is a colorless compound which becomes brown on oxidation, probably identical with urobilinogen.
2. A chromogen formed in the intestine from the breakdown of bilirubin; yields urobilins on oxidation; some is excreted in the feces and some is resorbed and excreted in bile or urine.