Bone, Joint and Muscle Terms

The coccyx, or tailbone, is the small triangular bone at the base of the spine formed from several fused segments.

Swallowed collagen is broken down into amino acids like any other protein, so it does not arrive intact at skin or joints.

A term previously used to describe chronic diseases of the connective tissue (e.g., rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and systemic sclerosis), but now is thought to be more…

The only bony strut holding the arm away from the chest, and one of the most frequently broken bones at any age.

A type of break in a bone caused by pressure and in which the bone collapses.

The word failure misleads, since the heart keeps beating; what fails is the match between its output and what the body needs.

A muscle locking up on its own, briefly and painfully, most often in the calf, the foot or the abdominal wall.

A type of benign (not cancer) germ cell tumor (type of tumor that begins in the cells that give rise to sperm or eggs) that often contains several different types of tissue such as hair, muscle, and…

Because a desmoid tumor tends to grow into nearby structures locally, complete surgical removal can be difficult even though it rarely spreads elsewhere.

The abbreviation is also written DXA, and the two forms name the same low-dose x-ray method for measuring bone mineral density.

Ordered when fracture risk is in question, the test takes minutes, needs no injection, and uses a very small radiation dose.

Breathing runs automatically because this muscle answers a signal from the phrenic nerves, which arise high in the neck.

Known widely by the brand name Valium, diazepam acts long and leaves active breakdown products, so its effect outlasts the dose considerably.

The active ingredient in a drug that is used to treat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and is being studied in the prevention and treatment of some types of skin cancer.

A drug that is used to treat the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and is being studied in the prevention and treatment of some types of skin cancer.

A drug or substance used to treat hypercalcemia (abnormally high blood calcium) and bone pain caused by some types of cancer.

The standard bone density scan, and one that reports mineral spread across an area rather than through a true volume.

Cancer has spread (1) through the muscle layer of the colon and/or rectal wall to the serosa (outermost layer) of the colon and/or rectal wall; or (2) through the serosa of the colon and/or rectal…

Cancer (1) may have spread through the mucosa (innermost layer) of the colon and/or rectal wall to the submucosa (layer of tissue under the mucosa) and may have spread to the muscle layer of the…

A quick low-dose scan that turns bone strength into a single comparable number, and the measurement osteoporosis is defined by.