Medical terms beginning with M

To change the genetic material of a cell.

Any change in the DNA of a cell.

A person who has a mutated (changed) copy of a gene.

Whether the ache sits in one muscle or everywhere at once is the first question, because the two lists of causes barely overlap.

Despite a name suggesting fungal origin, mycosis fungoides is the most common form of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, a cancer of white blood cells.

In mycosis fungoides, an area of skin that is thickened, raised, red, scaly, and itchy.

A drug used to treat infections caused by fungi (a type of microorganism).

Myelin is a fatty insulating layer wrapped around nerve fibers that speeds electrical signaling and protects the underlying nerve from damage.

A severe form of myelosuppression.

High-dose chemotherapy that kills cells in the bone marrow, including cancer cells.

Refers to myeloblasts (a type of immature cell that forms in the bone marrow).

The marrow is busy but unproductive, making faulty cells that die before reaching the blood, so counts fall while the marrow stays crowded.

Scar tissue crowds out the marrow, so blood cell production migrates to the spleen and liver, which swell as they take over.

Myelogenous describes anything arising from or resembling bone marrow and is often used interchangeably with myeloid when naming certain leukemias.

An x-ray of the spinal cord after an injection of dye into the space between the lining of the spinal cord and brain.

One of the two great branches of blood cell production, and the branch that supplies everything except lymphocytes.

One plasma cell clone takes over the marrow and floods the blood with a single useless antibody, damaging bone and kidneys as it grows.

A type of cancer that begins in plasma cells (white blood cells that produce antibodies).

An abnormal type of white blood cell that is found in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia.

These conditions are grouped by overproduction of blood cells, setting them apart from disorders in which the marrow instead fails to produce enough.

A progressive, chronic disease in which the bone marrow is replaced by fibrous tissue and blood is made in organs such as the liver and the spleen, instead of in the bone marrow.

Myelosuppression is reduced bone marrow activity that lowers red blood cell, white blood cell, and platelet counts, commonly following chemotherapy or radiation.

Treatment that inhibits blood cell production.

The formal name pins down what the everyday phrase leaves vague: a patch of heart muscle killed by blood flow that stopped.

A myoclonic jerk can occur normally, such as while falling asleep, or as a sign of an underlying neurological condition.

Myoinositol is a sugar alcohol the body makes and obtains from food, often marketed as vitamin B8 despite not meeting the definition of a vitamin.

The myometrium is the thick muscular wall of the uterus that contracts during labor and menstruation and gives the organ its structural strength.

A substance being studied in the prevention of skin cancer.