Medical Terminology
108 flashcards by MentisLibrary
Prefixes, suffixes and combining forms, plus the clinical vocabulary built from them: signs and symptoms, disease processes, tests, procedures, drug classes, specialties and chart abbreviations. For students entering a health profession.
- Acute
- Having a sudden onset and a short course.
- Chronic
- Persisting for a long time or recurring, often lifelong.
- Benign
- Not cancerous, not invasive, and unlikely to spread.
- Malignant
- Cancerous, invading nearby tissue and able to spread to distant sites.
- Diagnosis
- The identification of a disease or condition from the history, the examination and test results.
- Prognosis
- The expected course and outcome of a disease.
- Inflammation
- The body's protective response to injury or infection, marked by redness, swelling, heat, pain and loss of function.
- Edema
- Swelling caused by excess fluid trapped in the tissues.
- Hypertension
- Persistently elevated arterial blood pressure.
- Hypotension
- Abnormally low arterial blood pressure, low enough to reduce perfusion of the organs.
- Anemia
- A deficiency of red blood cells or of hemoglobin, which reduces the blood's capacity to carry oxygen.
- Antibiotic
- A drug that kills bacteria or stops them from multiplying.
- Pathogen
- A microorganism capable of causing disease.
- Prophylaxis
- A measure taken to prevent disease rather than to treat it.
- Palliative
- Relieving symptoms and improving comfort without curing the underlying disease.
- Hemorrhage
- Rapid or excessive loss of blood from a damaged vessel.
- Biopsy
- Removal of a sample of tissue from a living patient so that it can be examined for disease.
- Cardiology
- The branch of medicine concerned with the heart and blood vessels.
- Neurology
- The branch of medicine concerned with the brain, spinal cord and nerves.
- Oncology
- The branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
- Dermatology
- The branch of medicine concerned with the skin, hair and nails.
- Orthopedics
- The branch of surgery concerned with bones, joints, ligaments, tendons and muscles.
- Pediatrics
- The branch of medicine concerned with infants, children and adolescents.
- What does the prefix a- or an- mean?
- Without, absent, or lacking. An- is used before a vowel.
- brady-
- Slow.
- tachy-
- Fast or rapid.
- hyper-
- Above normal, excessive, or increased.
- hypo-
- Below normal, deficient, or beneath.
- peri-
- Around or surrounding.
- endo-
- Within or inner.