What I've done in this section is we've coloured the suffixes in blue to make them clear. And the suffix is the component that comes at the end of the word. So prefix at the start, root in the middle, suffix at the end. And we see a very common one here, emia.
In English spelling, a-e-m-i-a. In US spelling, e-m-i-a. It means exactly the same thing.
It means blood. So anemia literally means without blood. In practice, it means a reduced oxygen carrying capacity of the blood.
So the an in front is the prefix, an means without, emia is blood. Polycythemia. Well, I've put the prefix in red there. Poly means many.
The scythe part relates to cells, the red blood cells, and emia is in the blood. So this is many red cells in the blood and polycythemia is a pathological increase in the number of red cells in the blood. Leukemia, leuc means white, so leukemia literally means white blood because there is a malignant proliferation of the leukocytes, the white blood cells. The blood is not really white but when you look at it under the microscope there is a great proliferation, a great increase in the number of the leukocytes and of course in leukemia they are malignant lymphocytes.
Well it depends on the type of leukemia, lymphocytes in lymphocytic leukemia, those are the types of leukemia as well, myeloid leukemia. Anyway, it's an increase in the number of the white cells, but a pathological malignant increase. Myoglobinemia. Well, myoglobin is the protein or one of the proteins found in muscles.
So haemoglobin is found in red cells. Myoglobin is found in muscle cells. And like haemoglobin, it attracts oxygen to give the muscles a bit of a reserve of oxygen. And if the muscles are crushed, individual muscle cells can be crushed. And that will disrupt their cell membranes, meaning that the myoglobin that was in the muscle cells can be released into the plasma of the blood.
And that is a myoglobinemia, a condition where there is myoglobin in the blood. And the problem with that is the myoglobin can get trapped in the glomelulae, leading to an acute renal failure, or what we now call an acute kidney injury. Now, aces on the end of a word means that there is an action, a process, or something has occurred as a result of something else. So stasis is a condition of not moving. Things are static.
So cholestasis is where the bile is not flowing properly. So for example if there's a stone in the cystic duct the bile is not able to get out of the gallbladder and there's a cholestasis because col or coli means bile. Stasis not moving so the bile not moving and whenever things aren't moving whenever things are static and obstructed infection is likely to follow. Amoebiasis is a condition where someone is infected with amoeba. Atelectasis.
Atelectasis is a collapse of the small airways, usually as a result of blockage. So there's an atelectasis, there'll be a collapse of the small airways. Bronchiectasis is widening, a pathological widening of the bronchial passages.
Now, ectomy is probably the most common suffix used in surgery. It means removal of, because surgeons very often cut things out. So appendicectomy in English, appendectomy in US terminology, means the same thing, removal of the appendix.
But we can see it ends in ectomy, so it means removal of. Colectomy, the col part means colon, so colectomy. would be removal of the colon.
More commonly there's a partial colectomy or a hemicolectomy where part of the colon is removed. Polypectomy. Polypectomy would be removal of polyps. Polyps can occur in different places, in the colon for example or in the nose and they can be removed using a process called a polypectomy. Nephrectomy.
Another example, neph is kidney so nephrectomy would be the surgical removal of a kidney. Emesis or emetic means to do with vomit or vomiting. So actually an emetic would be something that we give to induce vomit. An anti-emetic is something which works against vomiting.
So an anti-emetic would be a medication to reduce the likelihood of vomiting. And in practice we give anti-emetics to reduce nausea as well as vomiting. Hematemesis is blood in the vomit. H-A-E-M is the blood, or you leave the A out of you in the US.
Blood, vomit, hematemesis, blood in the vomit. Perhaps the most common suffix of all, itis, I-T-I-S. Itis on the end of a word means inflammation of.
It doesn't tell us what's caused that inflammation, because there's different causes of inflammation, but it does tell us that it is inflamed. So conjunctive itis. Inflammation of the conjunctiva on front of the eye. Epididymitis, inflammation of the epididymis, which stores the sperm behind the testes. Remarkably painful condition, severe pain just behind the testes.
Tonsillitis, inflammation of the tonsils. Gastritis, inflammation of the stomach. And I'm sure if you thought about it, you could quickly think about a a hundred more itises. The suffix"-ism", on the end of a word, means an action or a state of. So for example, embolism is a condition where there is an embolus or several emboli that have broken off from a thrombus.
And these were first recognized as early as 1846 by the Polish. pathologist Rudolf Virchow who pointed out that the blood was likely to coagulate in vessels causing thromboembolism as a result of static blood flow or reduced blood flow or abnormal blood flow, damage to the vascular endothelium or increased coagulability of the blood. Priaprism.
Well a priaprism is a sustained erection of the penis. Typically it will remain erect for more than four hours and become very tender and painful and this has absolutely nothing to do with sexual excitement or interest. It's a pathological condition.
So for example it can occur in sickle cell disease. Now in sickle cell disease the abnormal sickle cells can clump together and that can reduce the drainage of blood from the penis resulting in the accumulation of blood in the penis. and it's the accumulation of blood in the penis which gives rise to the erection. Or it can be the side effects of drugs, calcium channel blockers, warfarin.
It's been reported after floxetine, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. It can be associated with street drugs, drugs of recreational abuse, such as cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy, cannabis. But it can also be a symptom of more serious disease, such as thalassemia, leukemia.
or myeloma and it's important to take this quite seriously because the sustained erection can actually damage the nerves in the penis and result in impotence if it's not dealt with. Megaly means an abnormal enlargement, a pathological enlargement. So cardiomegaly for example is an enlargement of the heart.
could be caused by left ventricular failure, could be caused by anemia or hypertension. For example, in hypertension the left ventricle has to work harder to pump the blood out against the increased pressure in the arterial system. So because the heart has to work harder, the myocardium will enlarge.
There'll be a hypertrophy giving rise to the cardiomegaly. Now in a young athletic person the heart can be enlarged but that's not abnormal that's a physiological cardiac enlargement as opposed to a cardiomegaly. Splenomegaly enlargement of the spleen could be caused by malaria or malaria thalassemia hemolytic anemia lymphoma glandular fever many causes of splenomegaly hepatomegaly is an enlargement of the liver for whatever cause acromegaly is enlargement of the hands feet jaw brow ridges in adults who have an excess of human growth hormone Ology means the study of or the science of.
So pathology is the study of path. Path is disease. So pathology is the study of disease.
Cardiology, cardiac is to do with the heart. The study of the heart and diseases of the heart. Hepatology is the study of the liver and liver diseases.
Neurology, diseases of the nervous system. Cytology is the study of cells. Hematology of the Study of Blood and I'm sure you can think of lots of more ologies.
Oma normally means a lump but it can mean a mass or a tumor. So hematoma is when there is a haemorrhage but the blood can't escape and it forms a pool of blood that will over time coagulate forming a hematoma so it's literally a lump of blood. So for example after a head injury there could be a subdural hematoma where blood collects underneath the durometer and the problem with that is it tends to press on the brain potentially raising intracranial pressure. Adenoma, adeno means glandular.
So an adenoma is a tumour in glandular tissue. So for example, there could be a thyroid adenoma in the thyroid gland. Hepatoma is a lump in the liver for whatever reason. Lipoma is a lump in fatty tissue.
Now, those previous ones we've mentioned there are benign lumps. Sarcomas and carcinomas are malignant lumps. So for example, rhabdomyosarcoma. The rhabdo part means skeletal muscle. Myo, well, myo is muscle.
So that would be a malignancy in a skeletal muscle. Because sarcomas are malignancies in connective tissues. Carcinomas are malignancies that arise from epithelial tissue whether on the outside or the inside of the body.
So adenocarcinoma for example would be a malignant tumor arising in glandular tissue. Ostomy is a surgical term and it means an artificial opening. So tracheostomy would be an opening into the trachea.
Cystostomy, opening into the bladder. Colonoscopy, opening into the colon. So for example part of the colon might be brought out onto the surface of the body so the fecal material could drain out from the surface of the abdomen rather than going through the rectum and the anus. Iliostomy would be where the ileum is brought out onto the surface of the body.
For example if a patient needed a total colectomy an ileostomy would be necessary. So it's an artificial opening. Now another surgical term is otomy.
And otomy means to cut into or incision into. So laparotomy is an opening into the abdomen, you would open the abdominal cavity going through the peritoneal membrane into the abdominal cavity. Craniotomy would be going into the cranial cavity in the brain or where the brain is. Thoracotomy would be an opening into the thoracic cavity.
Paresis refers to a weakness, normally a muscular weakness or a motor weakness. So hemiparesis, hemi-half as in hemisphere, would be when half the body is weak. So if you draw a line down the middle of the body you'd have a weak left arm and a weak left leg, or a weak right arm and a weak right leg.
Paraparesis. Para means parallel, so for example a paraparesis will be when both legs are weak, so it will be the lower half of the body that's weak. So hemiparesis is one half of the body going up and down the way.
Paraparesis is weakness in the bottom part of the body going down the way. And a monoparesis would be a weakness in one limb. So you could get a monoparesis in the right arm or the left arm or the right leg or the left leg.
Monoparesis. So it just means a weakness. Phagia is to do with eating.
So dysphagia would be difficulty or painful eating. And the term dysphagia, we actually usually mean difficulty in swallowing. But it's difficulty in eating, really.
Aphasia would be where someone can't eat at all. Now I know we're doing suffixes now, but this is a prefix, but it's the same root as phagocytosis, P-H-A-G, phag. And phagocytosis means cell eating.
So for example, monocytes or macrophages might eat invading bacteria, phagocytosis. So phagia eating. It means to do with eating but it can mean related to swallowing sometimes in the real world situation. Phasia is related to speech. So dysphasia is difficulty speaking.
So an expressive dysphasia, for example, is where someone can't think of the words that they want to say. They can't express themselves in words. This is common, of course, after cerebrovascular accident. A receptive dysphasia is where people can't understand the words that are spoken to them.
So again, sometimes after a stroke, you can be talking to someone. But they can't understand the words that you are saying. It's almost like you're speaking to them in a foreign language.
They have a receptive dysphasia. Aphasia is where someone loses the power of speech altogether. Now dysphasia, difficulty in speech, should not be confused with dysarthria.
Dysphasia is where someone can't speak because they can't think of the words, their mind is not converting the concept into the word that they're looking for. Whereas dysarthria is difficulty in forming the words. So someone would have dysarthria if their tongue wasn't moving properly or their lips weren't moving properly because they had lost motor control. And again, that happens after stroke.
So if one side of the face is paralysed, the patient can find it difficult to say the words. But that's difficulty in forming the words dysarthria, not dysphasia, which is difficulty in the brain thinking of the words in the first place. Now, plegia means paralysis.
inability to move part of the body. So a hemiplegia would be paralysis down the midline of the body affecting say for example the left arm and the left leg and probably the left side of the face as well. And we talk about a dense hemiplegia where there's a complete paralysis on one side of the body, the right or the left side of the body. Paraplegia would be paralysis of the legs or paralysis below the waist normally.
Monoplegia would be paralysis of one limb, one arm or one leg. Now quadriplegia and tetraplegia actually mean the same thing. Four limbs are paralysed. Quad and tetra both mean four.
So quadriplegia, tetraplegia. Paralysis of all four limbs, as you might get, for example, with a transverse lesion in the cervical spinal cord. And an old-fashioned word for paralysis is palsy. So palsy means paralysis.
But we still use this in modern terminology sometimes. So we might talk about a bulbar palsy which is paralysis of the swallowing muscles but plegia is the term that normally is used to mean paralysis of. Pnea, p-n-o-e-a in the UK, p-n-e-a in the US spelling means air or breathing as in pneumatic, a tyre which is full of air.
So dyspnea is difficulty breathing. Apnea, apnea, apnea. A means without. So apnea is the person who is not breathing at all. Tachy means fast.
So tachypnea, rapid breathing. Brady means slow. So bradypnea, slow breathing. Orthopnea is difficulty in breathing when lying flat.
And eu-pnea, EU on the front, means that it's normal. So eu-pnea means normal breathing. Rhea means to flow. R-H-O-E-A in the UK spelling, R-H-E-A in the US spelling. But they both mean to flow.
So diarrhea is loose flowing stool. rhinorrhea would be a flowing nose a runny nose as you were getting in a cold amenorrhea a means without and the meno part is is menstruation so amenorrhea is no menstruation lack of menstruation dysmenorrhea is painful menstruation Steatorrhea. That one's a bit of a misnomer really because steatorrhea means fat in the stools but it's not necessarily a loose flowing stool.
The main thing in steatorrhea is the stools are bulky and offensive and float. Galactorrhea is production of milk when it's not supposed to be produced. That can even happen in men, the nipple can start producing milk in some disorders. well it's not the nipple that produces milk but the milk comes out of the nipple scopi means to look so endoscopy endoscopy pronounced endoscopy just means to look inside maybe into a stomach or into a bowel colonoscopy looking into the colon hysteroscopy looking into the uterus Gastroscopy looking into the stomach and thankfully these days this is nearly always with relatively fine fiber optic instruments.
Tension means pressure. We don't use this term very often actually we normally say pressure when we mean pressure these days but hypertension and hypotension are both examples of the use of the word tension when we actually mean pressure. The suffix thermia means heat, so hypothermia would be lack of heat, indicating a low body temperature. Hyperthermia would be high heat, indicating a high body temperature. And euthermia, EU, means normal, so euthermia would be someone with a normal body temperature.
Trophy literally means nourishment. So if we're talking about atrophy that would literally mean without nourishment but what it actually means in practice it is a wasting. So if the spinal cord was damaged for example and the legs were no longer innervated there will be atrophy of the leg muscles, a wasting atrophy. I guess it means a malnourishment literally but it's actually a wasting.
hypertrophy is an increase in the size of the cells dystrophy means an abnormal situation of growth or development or condition so you might talk about someone with dystrophic toenails if they were of very poor quality now urea u-r-i-a means in the urine so hematuria is blood in the urine Anuria would mean that no urine is being produced. Paiuria would be pus in the urine. Dysuria is painful urination. Ketoneuria would be the presence of ketone bodies in the urine. but we've actually dealt with this in quite some detail on a specialised lesson on the urine so you can always look that one up if you'd like to.
This last one vol just means volume hypo vol emia hypo low vol volume emia blood low blood volume uvolemia would be normal blood volumes so I would hope that you are uvolemic as you listen to this.