registry

n., pl. -tries.

1. The act of registering; registration.
2. The registered nationality of a ship.
3. A place for registering.
4. 1. A book for official records.
   2. The place where such records are kept.

The configuration database in all 32-bit versions of Windows that contains settings for the hardware and software in the PC it is installed in. The Registry is made up of the SYSTEM.DAT and USER.DAT files. Many settings previously stored in the WIN.INI and SYSTEM.INI files in 16-bit Windows (Windows 3.x) are in the Registry.

The Registry can be edited directly, but that is usually only done for very technical enhancements or as a last resort. Routine access is done via the Control Panels in My Computer or any Properties menu. Right clicking almost every icon in Windows brings you the Properties menu for that object. A PC with many applications that has been used for a while can easily have a hundred thousand or more Registry entries. See Win Registry and Registry cleaner.

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Registries have been used by public health departments for many years to record cases of diseases of public health importance. In many countries, tuberculosis was the first condition for which registries were established, as many people who suffered from this contagious disease were living in their community. These people often had to remain in their jobs because there were no invalid pensions to support them. If they were excreting sputum containing tubercle bacilli with every cough, it was important for the chest physicians who cared for them, and for public health specialists, to remain in touch with them to ensure that as much as possible was being done for them—and to limit the spread of the disease. When the public health problem of tuberculosis declined in the late 1950s, other troubling diseases were surfacing.

The most important of these diseases was cancer. Many jurisdictions (counties, states, and even nations) established cancer registries, some of which were population-based (covering the entire population of a defined political jurisdiction). This is an important feature of a cancer registry, because it permits the calculation of rates. If cancer registration is prompt and complete, cancer registries are a valuable epidemiological resource that can be used to calculate incidence rates and risks, as well as to maintain surveillance and monitor trends in cancer incidence and mortality.

Cancer registries endeavor to use every available source of information to establish and confirm cancer diagnoses. These sources include clinical reports, reports of surgical operations, reports of biopsies and pathological specimens, radiological investigations, and autopsies. In many jurisdictions, reporting of all these ways in which cancer may present is routine and mandatory. Moreover, it is discrete, so cancer patients may not even know that the information about them and their diagnosis is recorded in a cancer registry. Informed consent is not usually part of the process. The information in a cancer registry is, however, carefully safeguarded.

When individuals with cancer become aware that personal details about them are recorded in a cancer registry, they object very rarely, and they can usually be reassured that the registry serves a valuable public health purpose. The issue of informed consent has been widely discussed by elected politicians as well as by cancer registry staff. In almost all jurisdictions, other than some European nations with a totalitarian past, it is accepted that the need for complete registration overrides the niceties and logistical problems of informed consent. In addition, a certain number of people will withhold their informed consent, which can invalidate the entire registry, especially with rare cancers.

Registries have also been used to record patients taking certain kinds of medication, and for various other purposes. Attempts to establish registries for persons with substance abuse and for sex offenders have not been successful because such persons are often elusive and evade contacts with authorities and relevant specialists.

(SEE ALSO: Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; Informed Consent)

Bibliography

Menck, H., and Smart, C. (1994). Central Cancer Registries: Design, Management and Use. Langhorne, PA: Harwood Academic Publishers.

World Health Organizations (1976). WHO Handbook for Standardized Cancer Registries. Geneva: Author.

— JOHN M. LAST

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1. an office for the maintenance of a register.
2. a central agency for collection of pathological material and related data in a specified field of pathology, so organized that the data can be properly processed and made available for study.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - registratur

idioms:

• registry office    dommerkontor

Nederlands (Dutch)
register, inschrijving, archief, bureau van de burgerlijke stand

Français (French)
n. - (GB) salle des registres, (Naut) immatriculation

idioms:

• registry office    (GB) bureau de l'état civil

Deutsch (German)
n. - Registrierung, Registratur, Standesamt

idioms:

• registry office    Standesamt

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - γραφείο τηρήσεως μητρώων, ληξιαρχείο, νηολόγηση, (ναυτ.) νηολόγιο

idioms:

• registry office    ληξιαρχείο

Italiano (Italian)
registro, archivio, ufficio di stato civile

idioms:

• registry office    ufficio di stato civile

Português (Portuguese)
n. - registro (m), inscrição (f), matrícula (f)

idioms:

• registry office    cartório (m)

Русский (Russian)
регистрация, регистратура

idioms:

• registry office    регистратура

Español (Spanish)
n. - registro, archivo

idioms:

• registry office    registro civil

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - registreringskontor

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
登记, 挂号, 注册, 登记处

idioms:

• registry office    登记处

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 登記, 挂號, 註冊, 登記處

idioms:

• registry office    登記處

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 기입, 등기, 등록부

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 登録, 登記, 書留, 登録所, 登録薄, 登記所

idioms:

• registry office    戸籍登記所

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مكتب تسجيل, سجل‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮משרד רישום, מירשם, הרשמה, ארכיב‬

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registry	registry mechanic
bridal registry	a r registry