insufficiency

1. The quality or state of being insufficient, especially:
   1. Moral or mental incompetence.
   2. Inadequate supply: an insufficiency of funds.
   3. Inability of a bodily part or organ to function normally: cardiac insufficiency.
2. A failing; an inadequacy: pointed out the insufficiencies in my report.

noun

The condition or fact of being deficient: defect, deficiency, deficit, inadequacy, lack, paucity, poverty, scantiness, scantness, scarceness, scarcity, shortage, shortcoming, shortfall, underage¹. See excess/insufficiency/enough.

An inability of muscles that span two or more joints to produce a complete range of movements in all the joints simultaneously. See also active insufficiency, passive insufficiency.

Inability to perform properly an allotted function.

• adrenal i. — hypoadrenalism.
• aortic i. — inadequacy of the aortic valve, permitting blood to flow back into the left ventricle of the heart.
• cardiac i. — inability of the heart to perform its function properly; heart failure.
• coronary i. — decreased supply of blood to the myocardium resulting from constriction or obstruction of the coronary arteries, but not accompanied by necrosis of the myocardial cells. Called also ischemic myocardial necrosis.
• hepatic i. — inadequate liver function, short of hepatic failure.
• ileocecal i. — inability of the ileocecal valve to prevent backflow of contents from the cecum into the ileum.
• pulmonary i. — insufficiency of the pulmonary valve, permitting blood to flow into the right ventricle of the heart.
• respiratory i. — a condition in which respiratory function is inadequate to meet the body's needs when increased physical activity places extra demands on it. See also respiratory insufficiency.
• thyroid i. — hypothyroidism.
• valvular i. — failure of a cardiac valve to close perfectly, causing the blood to flow back through the orifice (valvular regurgitation); named, according to the valve affected, aortic, mitral, pulmonary or tricuspid insufficiency.
• velopharyngeal i. — failure of velopharyngeal closure due to cleft palate, muscular dysfunction, etc., resulting in defective swallowing with regurgitation through the nose.
• venous i. — inadequacy of the venous valves with impairment of venous drainage, resulting in edema.