Medical Terminology Medical terminology Dept of Family Community

Medical Terminology

Medical terminology Dept of Family & Community medicine Lecture 3 Monday, November 19 th, 2018 By Dr. Muslim N. Saeed 2

By the end of this course, the student should be able to: l l l 3 Define terms relevant to the subject of Medical Terminology Breakdown medical terms to their constituents, translate each constituent, and combine the translations to form a meaningful statement Relate medical terms to their relevant body systems and/or bioprocesses

INTRODUCTION l Every profession has its own language(jargon) that allows for quick efficient communication between members of that profession and minimizes the potential for misunderstandings 4

l Medical terminology is a specialized language used by healthcare practitioners l Just 5 like a foreign language, it has its own vocabulary and ways of combining words together in an acceptable and understandable form

6 l In English speaking countries, students have English as their first language; they have biological and classical backgrounds; they already know what the words mean l In non-English speaking countries, students lack the classics and biology that utilize the words; many are confused by the language of medicine

Such students ask: l Why do things have such complex names? Or, they use to say: l If only we knew the meaning, it would be easier to understand! 7

The goal of this course is: 8 To learn the basics of how to formulate medical terms so you cannot only use and understand them yourself, but be able to recognise and learn new terms when you come across them in the future

l Many medical terms have interesting meanings or stories behind their evolution as words 9

There are two major categories of medical terms 10 l Descriptive: Those describe shape, color, size, function, etc. l Eponyms (putting a name upon): The term has been used to honor those who first discovered or described an anatomical structure, diagnosed a disease or first developed a medical instrument or procedure

Example of eponyms is the term “fallopian tubes” (uterine tubes-Gabriello Fallopio) The problem with eponyms is that they give no useful information about what is or where to find the item named 11

12 l Currently, the trend has been toward replacing eponyms with descriptive names l However, some things are known almost exclusively by their eponym l Would the student recognise “paralysis agitans” as Parkinson’s disease?

13 l Also, some descriptive terms have been deemed offensive or stigmatizing; as examples, “mongolism” is currently called Down’s syndrome and “leprosy” has all but been replaced with Hansen’s disease l Eponyms are not unique to medical terminology

l 14 The modern academic medicine began as a science in the days when Latin was the universal scientific language, and early medical doctors described the structures and procedures in that language, comparing them to common and familiar objects, or borrowing terms from the Greek and Arabic masters before them

l 15 In medical terminology, common Latin or Greek words are used as such for any part of the body for which the ancients had a name

For many other structures, scientific names have been invented l by using certain classical words or commonly, by combining Greek or Latin roots to form a new compound term Ø Memorisation 16 of such terms without understanding their meaning can lead to mental indigestion Ø Here, the roots are also presented from which many of these terms and compounds are derived, as an aid to comprehension

l 17 Medical terminology is a vocabulary for accurately describing the human body and associated components, conditions, and processes in a science-based manner

BASICS 18 l Before going through medical terms and their meaning, we need to learn a few fundamentals of how medical terminology is constructed as a language l The systematic approach to word building and term comprehension ﻓﻬﻢ ﺍﺩﺭﺍﻙ is based on the concept of three basic parts : word roots, prefixes, and suffixes.

l The word root (usually the middle of the term and its central meaning) is a term derived from a source language such as Greek or Latin and usually describes a body part 19

l The prefix, which is added in front of the term to modify the word root by giving additional information, usually identifies some subdivision or part of the central meaning like the location of an organ, the number of parts, or time involved 20

l Suffixes are attached to the end of a word root to modify the central meaning as to what or who is interacting with it or what is happening to it, like adding meaning such as condition, disease process, or procedure 21

22 l In medical terminology, the word root is not usually capable of standing alone as a complete word within a sentence l This is different from most word roots in modern Standard English

23 l The medical word root is taken from a different source language, so it will remain meaningless as a stand-alone term in an English sentence l A suffix or prefix must be added to formulate a usable medical term

24 l The process is different in Standard English because the word roots are capable of standing alone in a sentence l For example, the word “ear” is a word root in English that can be used without modification in a sentence.

l An additional challenge to the student of medical terminology is that the formation of the plural of a word must be done using the rules of forming the proper plural form as used in the source language 25

26 l This is more difficult than in English, where adding "-s" or "-es" is the rule l Greek and Latin each have its own rules to be applied when forming the plural form of the word root l Often such details can be found using a medical dictionary

l There is also another rule of medical terminology to be recognised: When more than one body part is used in the formation of a medical term, the individual word roots are joined together by using the combining form using the letter -o- to indicate the joining together of various body parts 27

28 l For example, if there is an inflammation of the stomach and intestines, this would be written as gastro- and enter- plus -itis, gastroenteritis l In this example, the -o- signifies the joining together of two body parts

29 l The word root is developed to include a vowel sound following the term to add a smoothing action to the sound of the word when applying a suffix l The result is the formation of a new term with a vowel attached (word root + vowel) called a “combining form”

30 l In English, the most common vowel used in the formation of the combining form is the letter -o-, added to the word root l Prefixes do not normally require further modification to be added to a word root because the prefix normally ends in a vowel or vowel sound, although in some cases they may assimilate slightly and an in- may change to imor syn- to sym-

Suffixes are categorised as either: 31 1. needing the combining form, or 2. not needing the combining form since they start with a vowel

32 l Decoding the medical term is an important process l Once experience is gained in the process of forming and decoding medical terminology, the process begins to make sense and becomes easier

l One approach involves breaking down the word by evaluating the meaning of the suffix first, then prefix, and finally the word root 33

l This will generally produce a good result for the experienced healthcare professional l When 34 in doubt, the result should be verified by a medical terminology dictionary

l The process of learning a new language, such as medical terminology, is a challenging, yet attainable, goal as the basic rulesonce learned-make the process easier 35

l In forming or understanding a word root, one needs a basic comprehension of the term and the source language l The 36 study of the origin of words is called etymology

The examples below translate the approach l Word root “therm” means heat. So “hypothermia” means less heat and “thermometer” means measuring heat 37

For the term “myocarditis”: l Prefix “myo” = muscle l Root “card” = heart l Suffix “itis” = inflammation 38

THANK YOU 39