Medical terms A–Z

Surgery to remove both breasts in order to reduce the risk of developing breast cancer.

Surgery to remove both ovaries and both fallopian tubes.

Bile is a liver-made digestive fluid, concentrated in the gallbladder, whose components break fat into smaller droplets for more efficient digestion.

A tube through which bile passes in and out of the liver.

This uncommon cancer develops within the tubes that carry bile from the liver to the intestine, and can arise inside or outside the liver.

Biliary describes structures involved in producing, storing, or transporting bile, including the liver, gallbladder, and the ducts connecting them to the intestine.

A branching drainage network that carries a digestive fluid one way and, when it blocks, turns the skin yellow.

The plumbing that carries bile from liver to gut, and the route gallstones, tumors and infection take to cause jaundice.

The same pigment gives bile its color, stool its brown and a fading bruise its yellow, all from one breakdown product.

Bimatoprost is a prostaglandin analog approved both to lower eye pressure in glaucoma and to lengthen and darken eyelashes.

A substance that makes a loose mixture stick together.

Bioavailable describes the proportion of a drug or nutrient that reaches the bloodstream intact and able to produce its intended effect.

An isoflavone found in soy products.

In living cells, chemical reactions that help sustain life and allow cells to grow.

A rise in the blood level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in prostate cancer patients after treatment with surgery or radiation.

A rise in the blood level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in prostate cancer patients after treatment with surgery or radiation.

The job sits at the seam where chemistry stops being about substances and starts being about how something stays alive.

Biofeedback trains awareness of involuntary body functions using real time sensor data, applied alongside other care for conditions such as headache and chronic pain.

Bioinformatics applies computing, statistics, and database science to organize and interpret large volumes of biological and medical information.

A medicine grown in living cells rather than built by chemistry, which is why no two batches are truly identical.

Three different meanings share one word, and only the surrounding sentence shows whether life science, a class of medicine, or family descent is meant.

One phrase covering two very different things: a medicine made from living material, and an infectious hazard at work.

A biological drug is a medication manufactured from living cells or organisms rather than through direct chemical synthesis alone.

A summary of the biological actions of a substance.

Treatment to boost or restore the ability of the immune system to fight cancer, infections, and other diseases.

Treatment to boost or restore the ability of the immune system to fight cancer, infections, and other diseases.

Any measurable signal from the body that stands in for something harder to observe directly.

Biomedicine applies the methods and findings of biology and related natural sciences to human health, forming the scientific foundation of mainstream clinical practice.

Biometrics denotes the statistical study of health data in research, while in everyday technology the same word refers to fingerprint or facial identity verification.

Biometry refers to statistical analysis of health data in research, and separately, in ophthalmology and obstetrics, to direct physical measurement of body structures.

Removal of cells or tissue for microscopic examination.

Tissue removed from the body and examined under a microscope to determine whether disease is present.

A biorepository is a facility that collects and preserves biological samples for future research rather than for direct patient care.

Samples of material, such as urine, blood, tissue, cells, DNA, RNA, and protein from humans, animals, or plants.

Biostatistics applies statistical methods to biological and health data to answer questions about disease, risk, and treatment effectiveness.

Treatment to boost or restore the ability of the immune system to fight cancer, infections, and other diseases.

Biotin is a B vitamin that supports enzymes involved in energy metabolism, and high supplemental doses are recognized to interfere with certain laboratory blood tests.

An inherited trio of skin bumps, lung cysts and kidney tumors, most often noticed when a lung suddenly collapses.

The muscular canal extending from the uterus to the exterior of the body.

Two quite different pills share one everyday name, and they neither prevent pregnancy by the same route nor tolerate a late dose equally.

Two grips on one molecule, so an engineered antibody can hold a tumor cell and an immune cell face to face.

A monoclonal antibody that binds two different types of antigen.

Bisphosphonates slow bone breakdown and are used chiefly for osteoporosis, along with certain cancer related bone conditions and Paget disease.

The necrosis (death) of bone tissue caused by treatment with a bisphosphonate (a drug or substance used to treat osteoporosis, bone pain caused by some types of cancer, and high blood calcium).

An eastern North American perennial herb.

The bladder is a muscular, expandable organ that stores urine between the kidneys and the urethra until it is released from the body.

Bladder cancer usually begins in the cells lining the bladder's interior, most often developing as urothelial carcinoma rather than the other, less common types.

A blast is an immature precursor cell, most often found in the bone marrow, that has not yet developed into a mature blood cell type.

A phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia in which tiredness, fever, and an enlarged spleen occur during the blastic phase, when more than 30% of the cells in the blood or bone marrow are blast cells…

A phase of chronic myelogenous leukemia in which 20% or more of the cells in the blood or bone marrow are blast cells (immature blood cells).

A chemotherapy drug from soil bacteria that cuts DNA using iron and oxygen, and that spares the bone marrow while scarring the lungs.

A plant whose leaves, stems, and flowers have been used in some cultures to treat certain medical problems.

A trial designed so that expectation cannot shape the result, by hiding which treatment each person receives.

A blister is a fluid filled pocket that forms within the skin's outer layers, most often from friction, heat, or irritation.

A feeling of abdominal fullness or visible distension, bloating usually results from gas within the intestines but can arise from many different digestive causes.

Counted as a tissue rather than a fluid, because the cells suspended in it are as much a part of the body as any organ.

One of the most frequently ordered blood tests, counting three separate cell lines at once and pointing in many different directions.

A procedure in which a sample of blood is examined to measure the amounts of certain substances made in the body.

A mass of blood that forms when blood platelets, proteins, and cells stick together.

An everyday phrase covering two different medical problems, which is why careful writing has retired it in favor of precise terms.

Pressure is never a fixed number, moving through the day with activity, sleep, posture and stress, which is why single readings mislead.

In traditional Chinese medicine, a condition described as slowing or pooling of blood, which may cause pain or other symptoms.

Blood sugar level shifts throughout the day depending on food intake, physical activity, and hormones that raise or lower it.

A nickname that misleads twice over: nothing is thinned, and the phrase covers two drug families that work in different ways.

A blood transfusion delivers donated blood or a specific blood component into the bloodstream to treat blood loss, anemia, or a clotting disorder.

Wall thickness tracks the pressure a vessel must contain, which is why an artery and a vein of equal width behave nothing alike.

A seal built into the brain's blood vessels that keeps most of what circulates in the blood from reaching brain tissue.

Blood-brain barrier disruption is a technique that temporarily increases the barrier's permeability to allow greater passage of therapeutic substances into brain tissue.

Bloom syndrome is a rare inherited disorder causing short stature and a sun sensitive facial rash, with a markedly increased cancer risk.

Bloom-Torre-Machacek syndrome is the full clinical name for Bloom syndrome, a rare inherited disorder marked by short stature and elevated cancer risk.

The number a bone scan produces, describing how much mineral is packed into a measured slice of the skeleton.

An imaging test that measures bone density (the amount of bone mineral contained in a certain volume of bone) by passing x-rays with two different energy levels through the bone.

A population statistic borrowed for individual use, which is the root of most complaints about it, including where the category lines fall.

A substance being studied in the treatment of prostate and other types of cancer.

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

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

A drug used to treat metastatic or locally advanced breast cancer that has not improved after treatment with certain other anticancer drugs.

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

A drug used to treat certain types of chronic myeloid leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

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

The private picture a person carries of their own body, which can sit a long way from what a mirror shows.

A single dose of drug usually injected into a blood vessel over a short period of time.

A single dose of drug usually injected into a blood vessel over a short period of time.

A peptide (small protein) found in the brain, gastrointestinal tract, and lungs.

An abbreviation from older drug references for jaw bone that dies and stays exposed during treatment with bone strengthening medicines.

Bone cancer includes primary tumors that arise directly within bone tissue and secondary tumors that spread there from cancer elsewhere in the body.

A measure of the amount of minerals (mostly calcium and phosphorous) contained in a certain volume of bone.

A medical condition in which there is a break in the continuity of the bone.

Bone marrow exists in two forms, one actively producing blood cells and another composed mostly of fat, and the balance shifts with age.

The destruction of bone marrow using radiation or drugs.

This procedure obtains a liquid marrow sample and is frequently performed together with a separate technique that removes a small solid core.

A procedure in which a small sample of bone with bone marrow inside it is removed, usually from the hip bone.

This umbrella term spans several distinct diseases with different outlooks, so identifying the specific type is essential to understanding what it means.

Cancer that has spread from the original (primary) tumor to the bone marrow.

Less a transplant than an infusion, and with a donor graft the immune attack the new cells mount is part of the point.

A measure of the amount of minerals (mostly calcium and phosphorous) contained in a certain volume of bone.

Cancer that has settled in bone, where it keeps the name of the organ it started in rather than the bone it now occupies.

An imaging test that measures bone density (the amount of bone mineral contained in a certain volume of bone) by passing x-rays with two different energy levels through the bone.

An imaging test that maps repair activity across the whole skeleton in one pass, often long before an x-ray shows anything.

A radioactive substance that is given through a vein, and collects in bone cells and in tumor cells that have spread to the bone.