Medical Terminology Overview

Medical Terminology Overview

• Medical terminology is a specialized language used by healthcare practitioners.
• The course objective includes defining common medical terms.
• Relate common medical terms to human anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology.
• Relate common medical terms to common disease states, categories, and diagnostic tests.
• Identify medical terminology in medical records.

Major Categories of Medical Terms

• Descriptive: Describes shape, color, size, and function (e.g., hypertension).
• Eponyms: Names based on those who discovered or described an anatomical structure, diagnosed a disease, or developed a medical instrument or procedure (e.g., Fallopian tubes are named after Gabriel Fallopio).

Medical Terminology Elements

• Prefix: An affix placed before the stem of a word (e.g., hypotension).
• Word root: The main part of a word, all medical words have at least one (e.g., hypo).
• Combining form (CF): Formed when a word root is combined with a vowel (usually "o"). (e.g., Gastro, Dento).
• Suffix: An affix placed after the stem of a word (e.g., osteoarthritis).

Prefixes

• Prefixes can change or modify the meaning of words.
• Prefixes often indicate number, time, position, size, or negation.
• Many prefixes found in medical terminology are also found in the English language.
• Learning prefix meanings with familiar words is more beneficial than just learning them within the context of medical terms.
• Categories of prefixes include time/speed, direction, position, size/number, and negation.
• Examples of specific prefixes include ante, pre, brady, neo, post, and tachy.

Prefixes of Time or Speed

• ante/pre-: Before (e.g., prehypertension).
• brady-: Abnormally slow (e.g., bradycardia).
• neo-: New (e.g., neonate).
• post-: After (e.g., post-surgery).
• tachy-: Rapid (e.g., tachypnea).

Prefixes of Direction, Position, and Size/Number

• Other types of prefixes include direction (e.g., ab-, ad-), position (e.g., ec-, endo-), size/number (e.g., bi-, hemi-, semi-), and negation (e.g., a-, an-, im-, in-).
• More examples of prefixes include ecto- endo- epi- ex- exo- extra- hyper- hypo.

Suffixes

• Suffixes are word elements located at the end of a word.
• Modifying a suffix can change the word's meaning.
• They often indicate a medical procedure, condition, diagnosis, or a disease state.
• Examples of suffixes include algia, cele, ectasis, ectasia, -emia, iasis, or itis.
• Common examples of medical conditions related to these suffixes are neuralgia, cystocele, bronchiectasis, anemia, nephrolithiasis, and osteoarthritis.
• Other suffixes include those related to medical specialities (e.g., pathy, logist, or -ology).
• There are also suffixes denoting size macro, micro, mono, and tri, for example.

Suffixes Associated with Medical Conditions

• Examples include suffixes referring to pain (-algia), protrusion (-cele), expansion (-ectasis), blood conditions (-emia), inflammation (-itis), and softening (-malacia).

Suffixes that Signify Diagnostic Terms or Surgical Procedures

• Suffixes include centesis, desis, ectomy, genesis, -gram, -graph, graphy, meter, metry, and pexy.

Suffixes That Denote Adjectives (for specialties)

• Converting a noun to an adjective (e.g., psychiatry to psychiatric).
• Changing the noun to reflect speciality.

Plural Suffixes

• Creating plural forms of singular words ending in '-y', '-a', and '-um'.

Diminutive Suffixes

• Suffixes that indicate a small size.
• Examples of suffixes include icle, ole, ula, and ule.

Rules of Word Building

• Rule 1: A word root links to a suffix that begins with a vowel (e.g., leuk-emia).
• Rule 2: A combining form (root+o) links a suffix that begins with a consonant (e.g., gastr-scope).
• Rule 3: A combining form links a root to another root to form a compound word (e.g., oste-chondr -itis).

This quiz covers the essential components of medical terminology used in healthcare. You will learn to define common medical terms and relate them to anatomy, physiology, and various disease states. Test your understanding of medical terms and their applications in medical records and documentation.