Medical terms beginning with A

A drug used to control the amount of sugar in the blood of patients with diabetes mellitus.

APL is an aggressive subtype of acute myeloid leukemia marked by a specific chromosomal rearrangement and treated differently from other forms.

A condition in which the bone marrow is unable to produce blood cells.

A substance that is being studied in the treatment of cancer.

A temporary cessation of breathing.

A cell protein that can attach to certain molecules in some cancer cells and may kill the cells.

A type of gland that is found in the skin, breast, eyelid, and ear.

Removal of the appendix, among the commonest emergency abdominal operations, now usually done through three small cuts rather than one.

An obstructed appendix becomes a closed space under rising pressure, which is what makes the illness progress rather than settle.

Long dismissed as a useless leftover, it is now thought to hold immune tissue and shelter a reserve of gut bacteria.

Appetite is the physiological drive to eat, regulated by hormones and the brain, and its loss or increase can signal an underlying medical condition.

A drug used with another drug, ritonavir, to treat patients who are infected with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) and have been treated with other anti-HIV drugs.

Aqueous describes a solution, fluid, or preparation that is water-based, distinguishing it from oil-based or alcohol-based alternatives.

A laboratory label from a tissue sample, marking cells that carry the docking site androgens use to send growth signals.

A substance found in certain plants, including burdock.

A substance found in certain plants, including burdock.

Its small bumps are working glands rather than blemishes, and they grow more prominent in pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Arginine is an amino acid the body can make on its own that also serves as a building block for nitric oxide.

A procedure that destroys tissue with an electrical current passed through a stream of argon gas to the tissue.

The name points at a microscope pattern, not at the lungs: cell clusters walled off by fibrous bands.

Lowering the estrogen supply is not the same as blocking its receptor, and that difference decides who the drug can help.

An aromatherapist is a trained practitioner who selects and applies essential oils to support relaxation and well being, usually alongside conventional care.

Aromatherapy applies concentrated plant oils, typically through inhalation or the skin, to promote relaxation and general well being rather than to cure disease.

The process of heating (without boiling) a mixture of water and an essential oil (scented liquid taken from a plant) to release a pleasant aroma.

Two things happening at once, a hands-on massage and diluted plant oils, which makes it unusually hard to say which part does anything.

Aromatic describes a substance with a distinct, often pleasant odor, or in chemistry, a compound built around a specific ring structure.

The state of being alert and ready to respond, or waking from sleep.

A rare type of ovarian tumor in which the tumor cells secrete a male sex hormone.

An abnormality in the rate or rhythm of the heartbeat.

Arsenic is a naturally occurring toxic element, historically used medicinally and as a poison, now also used in a targeted leukemia treatment.

The blocking of an artery by a clot of foreign material.

An x-ray of arteries.

An X-ray study that makes arteries appear by filling them with a liquid the beam cannot pass through.

An artery is a blood vessel that carries oxygen rich blood away from the heart toward the body's tissues and organs.

A missing letter rather than a different symptom: the same joint pain, spelled the way it is often typed and rarely corrected.

How many joints hurt, whether they match on both sides, and how long morning stiffness lasts sort the causes faster than the pain itself.

A disease that causes inflammation and pain in the joints.

An electronic device that is implanted in the body to monitor heart rate and rhythm.

The same properties that made this mineral useful, its resistance to heat and its needle-like fibers, are what make it hazardous.

Scarring, not cancer: this is the fibrotic lung disease of asbestos exposure, and it is diagnosed separately from mesothelioma.

Abnormal cells from the outer walls of the cervix (the lower, narrow end of the uterus).

Comparing the albumin in the fluid against the albumin in blood sorts the possible causes into two groups more reliably than symptoms do.

The mildest abnormal result on a cervical screening test, and usually a prompt for a virus test rather than for treatment.

A raised result announces that cells somewhere have been damaged without saying which cells, which is why it is never read alone.

Aspergillosis is a fungal infection caused by Aspergillus mold that most often affects the lungs, particularly in people with a weakened immune system.

Nearly everyone inhales its spores daily, and whether anything follows depends almost entirely on the state of the person breathing them in.

Fluid withdrawn from a lump (often a cyst) or a nipple.

Removal of fluid or tissue through a needle.

Aspirin is a widely used medication that relieves pain and fever, reduces inflammation, and inhibits platelet clumping to limit blood clot formation.

Behind almost every number on a laboratory report sits an assay, a method built to pick one substance out of a complicated mixture.

A tool that helps a person with a disability to do a certain task.

Any device or technology that helps a disabled person.

Asthenia is a general lack of physical energy or strength that can accompany many acute and chronic medical conditions.

Two problems run together here: inflammation that smolders between attacks and muscle spasm that closes the airway during one.

Astrocytes are star shaped glial cells that support, nourish, and help regulate the environment surrounding neurons in the brain.

An astrocytoma is a brain or spinal cord tumor originating from astrocytes, star shaped cells that support and nourish neurons.

Unevenness between two parts that should match, a finding whose weight depends entirely on where in the body it appears.

Feeling nothing is not the same as nothing happening, which is the entire reason screening programs exist.

Inflammation of the prostate gland where the only symptom is the presence of white blood cells in the prostate fluid.

An aggressive cancer of the central nervous system, kidney, or liver that occurs in very young children.

A substance being studied in the treatment of some types of cancer.

A substance being studied in the treatment of some types of cancer.

Ataxia is impaired coordination of voluntary movement, causing unsteady walking, clumsy limb motion, or imprecise gestures despite normal muscle strength.

A rare, inherited, progressive, degenerative disease of childhood that causes loss of muscle control, a weakened immune system, and an increased risk of cancer.

Walking that has lost its coordination, wide and lurching, as though the legs were no longer taking instruction accurately.

Often confused with a punctured lung, this is airless lung tissue rather than air escaped into the chest around it.

The sudden events, heart attack and most strokes, come less from slow narrowing than from a plaque tearing open and triggering a clot.

A type of laboratory mouse that is hairless, lacks a normal thymus gland, and has a defective immune system because of a genetic mutation.

An aggressive (fast-growing) type of T-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma caused by the human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1).

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

Most of the fall in blood cholesterol comes not from making less but from the liver clearing more of it out of the circulation.

Three letters for the busiest molecule in biology, though in a report on an implanted heart device the same abbreviation means something else entirely.

Atrasentan is an endothelin receptor antagonist now approved to reduce protein loss in the urine caused by a form of kidney disease.

The two upper chambers stop beating and start quivering, and the pulse that results is irregular in a way nothing else quite copies.

A drug used to block nerve stimulation of muscles and glands and relax smooth muscles.

An aggressive cancer of the central nervous system, kidney, or liver that occurs in very young children.

Weakened deliberately: an organism bred until it can no longer cause illness but still looks threatening enough to train the body's defenses.

A pathologist's word for cells that look wrong under the microscope without looking wrong enough to be cancer.

A benign (not cancer) condition in which there are more cells than normal in the lining of breast ducts and the cells look abnormal under a microscope.

Atypical ductal hyperplasia is a benign breast condition marked by abnormal appearing cells that raises the future risk of breast cancer.

A term used to describe abnormal cells that come from inside the cervix or from the lining of the uterus.

Not cancer, but not reassuring either, and what it means depends heavily on which organ the sample came from.

A marker of raised risk in both breasts rather than a lesion that becomes cancer where it sits.

Abnormal cells from the outer walls of the cervix (the lower, narrow end of the uterus).

An aggressive cancer of the central nervous system, kidney, or liver that occurs in very young children.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

Auricular describes anything relating to the ear, particularly its outer visible structure, though it also names an unrelated heart structure.

A procedure that uses gold salts (a salt form of the metal element gold) to treat diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Listening to sounds produced within the body, usually with a stethoscope.

An autoclave sterilizes medical and laboratory equipment using pressurized steam at temperatures high enough to destroy microorganisms and their spores.

A substance found in soybeans that may slow down or stop the spread of cancer.

A condition in which the body recognizes its own tissues as foreign and directs an immune response against them.

An autoimmune condition of the thyroid gland (a gland located beneath the larynx).

Autologous describes tissue, cells, or blood taken from a person and later used in that same person, rather than from another donor.

In transplantation, refers to a person's own bone marrow.

A cancer cell from an individual's own tumor.

Two opposing divisions, one for action and one for rest, keep heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion balanced without any conscious effort.

Autophagy is the cell's built-in recycling process that clears damaged components and helps it survive periods of stress or limited nutrients.

Short term relief that teaches itself: stepping away eases the fear at once, and that immediate ease keeps the pattern running.

The axilla is the anatomical region under the arm where it meets the shoulder, containing lymph nodes, vessels, and nerves.