Usually easy for someone to go on line and get the definition of a medical term. Sometimes however, as in the case of cystoscopy below, even a site with as large a dictionary of medical terms may not have the definition of a particular word or term. In that event, it is important to understand how these terms are made of a combination of roots, suffixes and prefixes:
Cardiomyopathy - Disease of the heart muscle (myocardium). . It is made of a combination of ‘cardio’ relating to the heart, ‘myo’ a prefix denoting a relationship to muscle. and pathy indicating disease.
Gastroparesis - A disease of the muscles of the stomach or the nerves controlling the muscles that causes the muscles to stop working. . It combines the terms ‘gastro’ relating to the stomach and ‘paresis’ that shares the same root as paralysis.
Hematoma - A localized swelling that is filled with blood caused by a break in the wall of a blood vessel. . It combines the terms ‘hema’ relating to blood and ‘toma’ that indicates a swelling
Arteriosclerosis - Hardening and thickening of the walls of the arteries. . This combines ‘arterio’ (arteries) with sclerosos that involves a thickening and degeneration of tissues.
Cystoscopy - Medicine Net does not define this term but it does define a cyst as: “A closed sac or capsule usually filled with fluid or semisolid material. . mediLexicon offers a definition of ‘scopy’ as “An action or activity involving the use of in instrument for viewing.” By combining these terms, it is easy to see that a cystoscopy is a procedure that uses an instrument to view a fluid filled sac.
References
Cedars-Sinai. (2012). Heart Failure Program. Retrieved 08 24, 2012, from Cedars-Sinai: http://www.cedars-sinai.edu/Patients/Programs-and-Services/Heart-Institute/Centers-and-Programs/Advanced-Heart-Failure-Program/?utm_source=adcenter&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Heart_Transplants_National&utm_term=what%20is%20cardiomyopathy
Mayo Clinic. (2012). Cardiomyopathy . Retrieved 08 24, 2012, from Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cardiomyopathy/DS00519
Medicine Net. (2012). Cyst . Retrieved 08 25, 2012, from Medicine Net: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2888
Medicine Net. (2012). Definition of Arteriosclerosis. Retrieved 08 25, 2012, from Medicine Net: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=2336
Medicine Net. (2012). Definition of Cardiomyopathy. Retrieved 08 25, 2012, from Medicine Net: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=13590
Medicine Net. (2012). Definition of Gastroparesis. Retrieved 08 25, 2012, from Medicine Net: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=8286
Medicine Net. (2012). Definition of Hematoma. Retrieved 08 24, 2012, from Medicine Net: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=3682
Medicine.Net. (2012). Definition of Myo. Retrieved 08 24, 2012, from Medicine.Net: http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=19884
mediLexicon International. (2012). -scopy - Medical Definition. Retrieved 08 25, 2012, from mediLexicon International: http://www.medilexicon.com/mlsearch.php?q=oscopy&sitesearch=www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php&channel=7201801445&client=pub-1971793357249522&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&flav=0001&sig=vptscazCworEUP7D&cof=GALT%3A%2300A12A%3BGL%3A1%3BDIV%3A%
mediLexicon International. (2012). systemic sclerosis. Retrieved 2012 08, 2012, from mediLexicon International: http://www.medilexicon.com/medicaldictionary.php?t=80256
