Medical Terminology and Healthcare Vocabulary
What is tested
Recognition and production of clinical vocabulary in Bulgarian, plus the ability to move between the Graeco-Latin term and the everyday word a patient would actually use.
Concepts to control
- Productive suffixes: -itis → -ит (гастрит, бронхит, цистит); -osis → -оза (нефроза, остеопороза); -oma → -ом (хематом, карцином); -algia → -алгия (артралгия); -ectomy → -ектомия; -scopy → -скопия; -graphy → -графия.
- Prefixes: хипер- / хипо-, тахи- / бради-, дис-, а- / ан-.
- Lay equivalents: главоболие, задух, оток, сърцебиене, киселини, запек, диария, повръщане, замайване, отпадналост.
- System and setting vocabulary: приемно отделение, спешно отделение, болнична стая, амбулатория, изследване, направление (referral), епикриза (discharge summary), рецепта, анамнеза, оплаквания.
- Abbreviations: ЕКГ, АГ (obstetrics and gynaecology), УНГ, ГП, НЗОК, РЗИ.
Traps
- ангина = tonsillitis; angina pectoris is стенокардия. A frequent distractor.
- инфаркт alone normally means myocardial infarction; specify инфаркт на миокарда when precision is needed.
- настинка is a common cold; простуда is colloquial and vaguer.
- рецепта means both prescription and recipe - the setting decides.
- оток (swelling) versus подуване (bloating) versus изпотяване (sweating); these are not interchangeable.
Worked example
A leaflet line reads: „Противопоказан при тежка чернодробна недостатъчност.“ To answer, you need three lexical items: противопоказан (contraindicated), тежка (severe), чернодробна недостатъчност (hepatic insufficiency). Rule of thumb: build a two-column list as you revise - clinical term on the left, the phrase you would say to the patient on the right - and practise converting in both directions, because both appear in items.