obstruktiven

Obstruktiven is the inflected form of the German adjective obstruktiv, meaning obstructive. It is used primarily in German-language medical and technical literature to describe something that causes or is related to the obstruction of a lumen, duct, airway, vessel, or other passage.

Etymology and usage context

The term derives from the Latin obstruere, to block, and is related to the English word obstructive. In German, obstruktiv is used as an attributive or predicative descriptor. The form obstruktiven appears when the adjective is declined for case, gender, and number, as in phrases describing features, diseases, or processes that involve blockage.

Common contexts

In medicine, obstruktiv is frequently used to characterize conditions that impair flow, such as obstruktive Atemwegserkrankungen (obstructive airway diseases) or obstruktive Schlafapnoe (obstructive sleep apnea). It also appears in descriptions of anatomical structures or pathophysiological processes that impede normal passage, for example obstruktive Merkmale of a lesion or obstruktive Phasen in a physiological cycle. Outside medicine, the word can describe any obstruction-related phenomenon in engineering or biology.

Relation to related terms

Obstruktiv as a general descriptor contrasts with unobstruktiv (not obstructive) or with obstruktion, the noun form for obstruction. The more general adjective obstruktivisch is less common and varies by dialect. In English, the equivalent term is obstructive.

See also

Obstruktiv, Obstruktion, Obstruktive Schlafapnoe, Obstruktive Atemwegserkrankungen.