Medical terms beginning with E

A procedure in which an endoscope is inserted into the body.

A procedure that uses an endoscope to examine the inside of the body.

A procedure in which an endoscope is inserted into the body.

A substance being studied in the treatment of cancer.

The single layer of flat cells lining every vessel, acting as a non-stick surface and as a control panel for blood flow.

A drug that blocks the hormone endothelin and may prevent prostate cancer from spreading to the bones.

Fixed before the first participant enrolls, it settles in advance what will count as the treatment working and what will not.

An enema introduces liquid into the rectum and lower bowel, used to relieve constipation, empty the bowel before a procedure, or deliver medication.

In biology, the state at which the number of calories eaten equals the number of calories used.

A group of hands-on and hands-near practices built on a life force that measurement has never found.

A form of complementary and alternative medicine based on the belief that a vital energy flows through the human body.

A type of chamomile plant with daisy-like white flowers that is found in Europe, North America, and Argentina.

One species among many sold as lavender, and the one whose oil is meant when a recipe or a study says lavender.

An anticancer drug that increases the effectiveness of fluorouracil.

A food that has nutrients added back that were lost during processing.

A doctor who specializes in treating diseases of the ear, nose, and throat.

A form of nutrition that is delivered into the digestive system as a liquid.

A health professional trained in the care of persons with stomas, such as colostomies or urostomies.

In medicine, the removal of an organ or tumor in such a way that it comes out clean and whole, like a nut from its shell.

A virus that has an outer wrapping or envelope.

Environmental tobacco smoke combines smoke exhaled by smokers with smoke released directly from burning tobacco, inhaled involuntarily by others nearby.

A substance being studied in the treatment of certain types of cancer, including non-Hodgkin lymphoma, breast, colon, lung, ovarian, and prostate.

An enzyme is a specialized protein that speeds up a specific chemical reaction in the body without being consumed or permanently changed by it.

This laboratory test, commonly abbreviated ELISA, uses enzyme-linked antibodies bound to a solid surface to detect and measure a specific substance in a fluid sample.

Its weapons cut both ways: the granule proteins that damage parasites also injure airway and skin tissue in allergic disease.

A number on a blood report rather than something a person feels, and its size shapes how far the search for a cause goes.

A thin membrane that lines the fluid-filled spaces in the brain and spinal cord.

A cell that forms the lining of the fluid-filled spaces in the brain and spinal cord.

A type of brain tumor that begins in cells lining the spinal cord central canal (fluid-filled space down the center) or the ventricles (fluid-filled spaces of the brain).

A tumor growing from the lining of the brain's fluid spaces, able to shed cells into that fluid and settle further down.

A shrub native to China and India.

Outbreak investigation, risk factor studies and the evaluation of public health measures all sit with this population level specialist.

Counting cases, comparing exposed and unexposed groups, and testing whether an intervention changes the numbers are the core tasks of the discipline.

A layer with no blood supply of its own, rebuilt continuously from below and shed from above roughly once a month.

Cancer that begins in squamous cells (thin, flat cells that look like fish scales).

A group of chronic skin disorders in which fluid-filled blisters form on the skin and mucosa (the moist, inner lining of some organs and body cavities).

The epididymis is a tightly coiled tube behind each testicle where sperm cells complete maturation and are stored before ejaculation.

A catheter left sitting in the space outside the cord is what lets the block be topped up, adjusted or deepened.

An injection of an anesthetic drug into the space between the wall of the spinal canal and the covering of the spinal cord.

Not one disease but a shared endpoint with dozens of causes, from a birth injury to a scar, a gene or a tumor.

The medical name for a nosebleed, and one of the few bleeding sites where the exact spot decides how easily it stops.

The most common receptor result in breast cancer, and the one that opens the door to hormone-blocking treatment taken over years.

A negative result narrows the options rather than worsening them outright, and it is the first of the three markers behind the triple-negative label.

A substance that is being studied as a treatment for cancer.

The protein found on the surface of some cells and to which epidermal growth factor binds, causing the cells to divide.

Often the first visible sign of narrowed arteries elsewhere, which is why it is treated as a cardiovascular finding and not only a sexual one.

An erection is the firming of erectile tissue as it fills with blood, a physiologic response involving structures in both male and female anatomy.

Vitamin D2, produced by shining ultraviolet light on yeast or mushrooms, and the one form of vitamin D the body cannot make.

A daily tablet that switches off a growth signal on the cancer cell surface, working best where one specific mutation is present.

ERMS is an abbreviation for embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma, the most common soft tissue cancer diagnosed in infants and young children.

ERT supplies estrogen to postmenopausal women or those without ovaries, and is distinguished from combined regimens that also include progesterone.

A procedure in which a probe that sends out high-energy sound waves is inserted into the rectum.

Pressing on the area is the quickest test, since redness from widened vessels fades under a finger and bleeding into skin does not.

Stripped of a nucleus and packed with hemoglobin, this cell trades any ability to repair itself for maximum oxygen carrying capacity.

A condition in which immature red blood cells (erythroid cells) in the bone marrow are abnormal in size, shape, organization, and/or number.

A condition in which immature red blood cells (erythroid cells) in the bone marrow are abnormal in size, shape, organization, and/or number.

Cancer of the blood-forming tissues in which large numbers of immature, abnormal red blood cells are found in the blood and bone marrow.

An abnormal patch of red and white tissue that forms on mucous membranes in the mouth and may become cancer.

An abnormal patch of red tissue that forms on mucous membranes in the mouth and may become cancer.

The kidney doubles as an oxygen meter, releasing this hormone whenever the blood passing through it carries less oxygen than it should.

The mirror image half of an older drug, isolated because that half carries nearly all of the activity while its twin adds little.

Esomeprazole is a proton pump inhibitor that reduces stomach acid production to treat acid reflux and ulcer related conditions.

The adjective attached to anything concerning the swallowing tube, from reflux and strictures to cancers and speech after surgery.

Lacking the outer wrapping that surrounds other digestive organs, the esophagus lets a tumor reach neighboring structures early.

The backward flow of stomach acid contents into the esophagus (the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach).

Speech produced by trapping air in the esophagus and forcing it out again.

A tube placed in the esophagus to keep a blocked area open so the patient can swallow soft food and liquids.

Esophagectomy removes part or all of the esophagus, most often to treat esophageal cancer that has not responded to other therapy alone.

Inflammation of the esophagus (the tube that carries food from the mouth to the stomach).

Examination of the esophagus using an esophagoscope.

A moving X-ray of a swallow, showing not merely the shape of the tube but whether it actually works.

A valve at each end keeps traffic moving one way, and it is failure of the lower one that causes most trouble.

An old, inexpensive blood test that reports something is wrong somewhere without saying what or where.

Essential thrombocythemia is a bone marrow disorder that causes an elevated platelet count without a reactive cause such as infection or iron deficiency.

Essential thrombocytosis describes a persistently elevated platelet count arising from a primary bone marrow disorder rather than a temporary reactive process.

An ester is a chemical compound formed from an acid and an alcohol, a structural class that includes dietary fats and certain local anesthetics.

A form of estrogen that may have fewer side effects than other forms.

A blood estradiol result means little without knowing where in the cycle, or where in life, the sample was taken.

A combination of the hormone estradiol (an estrogen) and nitrogen mustard (an anticancer drug).

After menopause the ovaries largely stop making it, and fat tissue converting adrenal hormones becomes the main remaining source.

A loose label stretched across two unrelated drug strategies: occupying the receptor, or shutting off the supply of the hormone upstream.

A hormone receptor that works as a gene switch, so blocking it changes what a cell builds rather than merely what it senses.

Describes cells that do not have a protein to which the hormone estrogen will bind.

A result that reads like a label but works as a prediction, since it forecasts which treatments a tumor is likely to answer.

A lab test to find out if cancer cells have estrogen receptors (proteins to which estrogen will bind).

Hormones given to postmenopausal women or to women who have had their ovaries surgically removed.

A substance that comes from a type of sea squirt and is being studied in the treatment of cancer.

An injection of ethanol (alcohol) through the skin directly into a tumor to kill cancer cells.

The hard cases are hard because two sound principles point in opposite directions, not because anyone has done something wrong.

A final personal message or document in which a person shares his or her thoughts, values, memories, life lessons, advice, and hopes for the future.

A form of poppy seed oil that contains iodine.

A type of paranasal sinus (a hollow space in the bones around the nose).

The property that sterilizes is the property that harms, since the gas reacts with DNA whether that DNA belongs to a microbe or a person.

A drug that belongs to the family of drugs called bisphosphonates.

Diagnosis names what a condition is; etiology names what produced it, and the two answers can be separated by decades of research.

Eucalyptus oil is a plant derived ingredient added in small amounts to cough drops and chest rubs, though the concentrated oil is toxic if swallowed.

On its own the word describes a mood, not a diagnosis; what matters clinically is what produced it and how long it lasts.

An ultrasound probe carried down the gullet on a scope, close enough to image organs the skin hides.

A procedure to take a sample of tissue for examination under a microscope.

Intention is what the definitions turn on, which is why several superficially similar practices near the end of life are classified separately.