Bone, Joint and Muscle Terms
Bones, joints, muscles, connective tissues, movement, and orthopedic health. Browse definitions and meanings below.
What is rheumatology, and how does it differ from orthopedics?
Both fields deal with bones, joints and muscles, and they divide by approach rather than by body part. A rheumatologist treats joint and muscle disease with medicines, particularly conditions driven by inflammation or by the immune system attacking the body. An orthopedic surgeon repairs and replaces the structures mechanically.
The vocabulary splits along the same line. Terms ending in -itis describe inflammation and tend to be rheumatologic, while terms built from -plasty, -desis and -ectomy describe operations. A word such as arthritis names a process; arthroplasty names what a surgeon does about it.
Terms in this topic
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A rare disorder in which the bone marrow makes almost no red blood cells.
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Changes arrive so slowly that old photographs, a ring that no longer fits or a rising shoe size often reveal them first.
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Immature blood cells fill the marrow, so the illness comes from what is missing rather than from what is present.
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An aggressive (fast-growing) type of leukemia (blood cancer) in which too many lymphoblasts (immature white blood cells) are found in the blood and bone marrow.
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An aggressive (fast-growing) type of leukemia (blood cancer) in which too many lymphoblasts (immature white blood cells) are found in the blood and bone marrow.
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An aggressive (fast-growing) disease in which too many myeloblasts (immature white blood cells that are not lymphoblasts) are found in the bone marrow and blood.
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The damage comes less from the tumor itself than from what stops being made once the marrow fills with blasts.
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An aggressive (fast-growing) disease in which too many myeloblasts (immature white blood cells that are not lymphoblasts) are found in the bone marrow and blood.
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A tumor that is a mixture of an adenoma (a tumor that starts in the gland-like cells of epithelial tissue) and a sarcoma (a tumor that starts in bone, cartilage, fat, muscle, blood vessels, or other…
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A substance made from shark cartilage that is being studied for its ability to prevent the growth of new blood vessels that tumors need to grow.
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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.
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Alendronate sodium is a bisphosphonate drug that slows bone breakdown, used mainly to treat osteoporosis and certain other bone conditions.
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A procedure in which a person receives stem cells (cells from which all blood cells develop) from a genetically similar, but not identical, donor.
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A drug class that occupies the receptors adrenaline uses to squeeze blood vessels and the muscle at the bladder outlet.
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Named for the receptor it occupies, this drug group loosens smooth muscle so vessels widen and urine flows more easily.
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A drug used to treat some types of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and severe skin conditions, such as psoriasis.
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A type of monoclonal antibody being studied in the treatment of multiple myeloma (a cancer that forms in bones) and in the prevention and treatment of bone metastases (cancer that has spread to bone…
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AML is a fast progressing blood cancer in which immature white blood cells accumulate in the bone marrow, crowding out normal blood cell production.
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A type of steroid that is used in medicine to repair body tissues and to increase appetite and the growth of muscles.
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A harmless-sounding kidney growth of fat, muscle and tangled vessels whose real danger is not spread but sudden heavy bleeding.