Anatomy, Physiology, and Medical Terminology
Anatomy, physiology, and terminology questions reward a system-based approach. Know body planes (sagittal, frontal or coronal, transverse), directional terms (superior/inferior, anterior/posterior, medial/lateral, proximal/distal, superficial/deep), and cavities (cranial, spinal, thoracic, abdominal, pelvic). Be able to place organs: heart and lungs in the thorax; liver in the right upper quadrant; stomach in the left upper quadrant; kidneys retroperitoneal; bladder anterior in the pelvis. Physiology focuses on homeostasis and major systems: cardiovascular circulation and conduction, respiratory gas exchange, renal filtration, digestive absorption, endocrine feedback, immune response, and nervous signal transmission. Terminology is built from roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Learn common roots such as cardi/o, gastr/o, nephr/o, hepat/o, dermat/o, and oste/o; prefixes such as brady-, tachy-, hyper-, hypo-, and dys-; and suffixes such as -itis, -ectomy, -ostomy, -otomy, -algia, -emia, -uria, and -scopy. Abbreviations appear, so know which are dangerous or ambiguous and spell terms correctly.
Traps include reversing afferent and efferent, confusing supine with prone, mixing proximal/distal with medial/lateral, assuming every -ectomy means organ removal, and confusing -ostomy (create an opening) with -otomy (cut into). Also watch left/right organ location.
Worked example: Break down gastroenteritis: gastr/o means stomach, enter/o means intestine, and -itis means inflammation, so it means inflammation of the stomach and intestines. Rule of thumb: read the suffix first, then the prefix, then the root to build meaning.