Medical Terminology Overview

Overview

This lecture introduces key medical terminology related to medical conditions and procedures, focusing on common prefixes, suffixes, and their meanings, with practice examples to build understanding.

Medical Condition Suffixes and Prefixes

• "Dys-" means abnormal or problematic, e.g., dyspnea (abnormal breathing).
• "Mal-" means bad, e.g., maladaptive.
• "-itis" is a suffix meaning inflammation, e.g., colitis, arthritis.
• "-plasia" means process of growth or growing.
• "-plasma" means a growth or formation.
• "-oma" means tumor, often related to cancer, e.g., sarcoma.
• "-trophy" refers to growth in size, not number (cellular growth).
• "-pathy" means disease, e.g., neuropathy (disease of nerves).
• "-osis" refers to a condition, usually abnormal.
• "-ia" means abnormal condition.
• "-ism" means state of, e.g., hypothyroidism (state of low thyroid function).
• "-ic" or "-eal" means pertaining to, e.g., cephalic, esophageal.
• "Meta-" means change or transformation, e.g., metaplasia.
• "-stasis" or "-static" means maintenance of normal conditions, e.g., homeostasis.
• "Dynamic" means changing, often continuously.
• "-lytic" or "-lysis" means destruction, e.g., hemolysis (destruction of blood cells).
• "-megaly" means enlarged, e.g., splenomegaly.
• "-penia" means decreased or lower than normal, e.g., cytopenia (low cell count).
• "-emia" refers to a blood condition, e.g., anemia.

Medical Procedure Suffixes and Prefixes

• "-ectomy" means removal or excision, e.g., appendectomy.
• "-otomy" means incision or cutting into, e.g., tracheotomy.
• "-ostomy" means creating a hole or connection, e.g., colostomy.
• "-scopy" means to view, e.g., microscopy.
• "-graphy" means the process of recording, e.g., sonography.
• "-gram" means a record or recording, e.g., mammogram.
• "-plasty" means surgical repair, e.g., angioplasty.
• "-therapy" means treatment.

Common Prefixes in Procedures

• "Chemo-" means chemical, e.g., chemotherapy (chemical treatment).
• "Echo-" or "Sono-" means sound, e.g., echocardiogram.
• "Electro-" relates to electrical charge, e.g., electrocardiogram (ECG).

Practice Examples

• Hypertrophy: "hyper" (above normal) + "trophy" (growth in size).
• Normotension: "normo" (normal) + "tension" (pressure), i.e., normal blood pressure.
• Hyperplasia: "hyper" (above normal) + "plasia" (growth in number of cells).
• Pancytopenia: "pan" (all) + "cyto" (cells) + "penia" (decreased), meaning decrease in all cells.
• Splenomegaly: "splen" (spleen) + "megaly" (enlarged), meaning enlarged spleen.

Key Terms & Definitions

• Dys- — abnormal or difficult.
• -itis — inflammation.
• -oma — tumor.
• -trophy — growth in cell size.
• -plasia — growth or development.
• -pathy — disease.
• -osis — abnormal condition.
• -penia — deficiency or low.
• -megaly — enlargement.
• -ectomy — surgical removal.
• -otomy — incision or cutting into.
• -ostomy — opening created surgically.

Action Items / Next Steps

• Review suffixes, prefixes, and their meanings from this lesson and lesson one.
• Complete provided practice problems to reinforce decoding medical terms.