Dictionary.net

from 'to place,' 'separation,' 'distance.' Diastema, Dissidentia. A separation of bones, and particularly of the bones of the cranium, from each other; of the radius from the ulna, and the fibula from the tibia. The ancients used this word to designate the three dimensions of the body, - length, breadth, and thickness; for the interval separating the patient from the physician; the swelling of varicose veins; the time at which some changa occurred in disease, &c.

Separation of bones without fracture.

Fracture of a bone at the junction of an epiphysis.

The putting asunder one part from another, as separation of the epiphysis from the shaft of a bone or the separation of the recti abdominales muscles from one another.

A term used by Henderson to describe the period of the diastole of the ventricles following the first sudden relaxation. During this period the ventricles receive but little additional venous blood, and it is the period which is shortened most when the heart rate is increased. [Gr.]