Medical Terminology
Medical Terminology tests whether you can build, break down and spell clinical words so that notes and instructions are unambiguous.
Core rules
- A term = prefix + root + suffix, joined by a combining vowel (usually o) when the suffix begins with a consonant. The suffix usually gives the procedure, condition or noun; the prefix modifies it.
- Common roots: cardi (heart), pulmon (lung), nephr (kidney), hepat (liver), gastr (stomach), enter (intestine), oste (bone), derm (skin), neur (nerve), haem/hemat (blood), cyt (cell), my (muscle).
- Suffixes: -itis inflammation, -ectomy surgical removal, -otomy cutting into, -ostomy creating an opening, -emia blood condition, -uria urine condition, -algia pain, -megaly enlargement, -scopy viewing, -plasty repair.
- Prefixes: hyper above, hypo below, tachy fast, brady slow, dys difficult or abnormal, a- or an- without, poly many, bi- two, intra- within, inter- between.
- Common abbreviations: BP, TPR, NPO, I/O, SOB, ROM, BMI, IM, IV, SC, PR, Hb, WBC.
Worked example
The word hyperglycaemia is broken as hyper- (excessive) + glyc/o (sugar) + -aemia (blood condition), giving a blood sugar above normal. Reasoning: you identify the suffix first to know the category (a blood condition), then the prefix to know direction (high), then the root to know what is affected (glucose). Applying the same method, gastroduodenostomy = gastr/o + duoden/o + -stomy, a surgical opening between stomach and duodenum.
Traps that cost marks
- Mixing -ectomy (removal), -otomy (incision) and -ostomy (opening).
- Confusing ileum (small intestine) with ilium (pelvic bone).
- Guessing a word's meaning from the prefix alone.
- Misspelling a term so the meaning changes in the record.