Medical Terminology Overview

Medical Terminology Overview

• A specialized vocabulary utilized by healthcare professionals for efficient and precise communication.

Components of Medical Terms

• Prefix: Added at the beginning of the term to modify the word root, providing information like number, position, direction, color, time, or status (e.g., micr/o/scope).
• Combining Vowel: Typically used when connecting word roots and suffixes.

Combining Vowel Rules

• Between Word Root and Suffix:

  • If the suffix starts with a vowel, omit the combining vowel (e.g., arthritis).
  • If the suffix starts with a consonant, include the combining vowel (e.g., arthroscope).

• Between Two Word Roots:

  • The combining vowel is retained even if the second root begins with a vowel (e.g., gastroenteritis).

Creating Combining Forms

• Formed by combining a word root with a vowel (e.g., Micr/o becomes Micro).
• Example: gastroduodenostomy breaks down to gastr/o (stomach) + o (combining vowel) + duoden/o (duodenum) + stomy (surgical opening).

Example of No Combining Vowel

• Hypoinsulinemia: Decomposed into prefix (hypo), word root (insulin), and suffix (emia), demonstrating no combining vowel as the prefix and suffix both start with vowels.

Anatomical Order in Medical Terms

• When multiple roots are involved, they are typically arranged according to the anatomical order of the body systems involved, following a left-to-right reading pattern.
• Example: "facial" refers to relations involving the face, while "fascial" pertains to the fibrous membrane of muscles.