The course introduces prefixes, suffixes, and word roots used in the langage of medicine. Topics include medical vocabalary and terms that relate to the physiology, anatomy pathological conditions, and treatment of selected systems.

1. Medical Terminology

2. INTRODUCTION
Word Parts
Combining Parts to Form Words/Rules
Pronunciation
Abbreviations, Symbols and Acronyms

3. ORIGINS OF MEDICAL LANGUAGE
• Ancient Greeks and Romans
– Hippocrates – Father of Western Medicine
• Roman Empire – Latin
• German, French, English terms
• Now 90% of terms are of Greek and Latin origin.

4. STRUCTURE AND WORD PARTS
• Analyze medical terms by dividing them into their component
parts - 4
• ROOT– foundation of the word. Gives the word its meaning
• Examples: cardi = heart
• Pneum = air or lung
• Gastr = stomach
• Neur = nerve
• Ur = urine
• Hemat = blood
• All medical terms have one or more roots

5. WORD PARTS (con’t)
• COMBINING FORMS
– Combination of the root and the combining vowel – most commonly ‘O’ May also
be an ‘I’
• Links root to suffix or root to another root
• Makes word easier to pronounce and spell.
• Written as root/o
• Examples:
– Gastr/o
– Pneum/o
– Hemat/o
– Path/o = disease

6. WORD PARTS (con ‘t)
• SUFFIXES
– Word Endings
– Adds information or modifies root
– Examples:
– Logy = study of
» Cardiology = study of the heart
– Ac = pertaining to
» Cardiac = pertaining to the heart
– Itis = inflammation
» Carditis = Inflammation of the heart
– Megaly = enlargement
» Cardiomegaly = enlarged heart

7. WORD PARTS (con’t)
• PREFIXES
– Small word before the root. Pre= before
• Not all terms have prefixes
• Modifies the root
• Examples
– Hyper = Excessive, increased
– Hypo = Less, decreased
– Bi = two or both
– Anti = against
– Post = after
– A=no, not, without
– Sub = under
– Trans = across

8. COMBINING PARTS TO FORM WORDS
• 4 Standard ways:
– Root or combining form
• Phleb/o =vein
– Above + additional root or combining form
• Thrombophleb/o = clot in a vein
– Above + Suffix
• Thrombophlebitis = inflammation of a vein with clotting
– Prefix + above
• Postthrombophebitis = after inflammation of a vein
with clotting (recovery)

9. GENERAL RULES
• Read the meaning of the medical term from the suffix, back to the
beginning of the term and then across
• Drop the combining vowel before a suffix beginning with a vowel.
– Gastritis, not ‘gastroitis’
• Keep the combining vowel before a suffix beginning with a
consonant
– Cardiology, not cardilogy
• Keep the combining form between two roots
– Electr/o/cardi/o/gram
– Oste/o/arthritis

10. PRONUNCIATION
• General Rules:
– Only the “s” sound in “ps” is pronounced
• Pseudomonas
– “g” and “c” assume the soft sounds of “j” and “s”
when used before “e”, “I” and “y”
• Examples: gene, gingivitis, cycle, cytology
– “g” and “c” have a hard sound in front of other letters
• Examples: cardiac, gastric, cornea,
– Only the “n” sound in “pn” is pronounced
• Pneumonia
– Review pronunciation key in text

11. PLURALS AND ADJECTIVES
• Plurals can be confusing.
• General rules:
– If term ends in an ‘a’ , drop ‘a’ and add ‘ae’
• vertebra, vertebrae
– If term ends in ‘is’, drop ‘is’ and add ‘es’
• Diagnosis, diagnoses
– If term ends in ‘y’, drop the ‘y’ and add ‘ies’
• Therapy, therapies
– If term ends in ‘um’, drop the ‘um’ and add an ‘a’
• Bacterium, bacteria

12. ABBREVIATIONS & SYMBOLS
• Review common charting abbreviations and symbols in text
• Symbols –
– Increasing, decreasing
– Male, female
• Memorization required
• Each facility/hospital has their own approved abbreviations
list.

13. ACRONYMS
• Are abbreviations formed from the first letter of each
word in a phrase.
• Very commonly used in health care
• Examples:
– ATM, UPS – commonly used in everyday life
– ASAP
– VS
– BP
– SOB