Bone, Joint and Muscle Terms

The main sensory nerve of the head and face, and the motor nerve of the muscles used in chewing.

The air space behind the eyebrows that nobody is born with, and the one whose shape is distinctive enough to identify a person.

A condition in which the stomach muscles shrink and become weak.

A substance used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to help make clear pictures of the brain, spine, heart, soft tissue of joints, and inside bones.

A procedure that uses gold salts (a salt form of the metal element gold) to treat diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis.

A genetic condition that causes unusual facial features and disorders of the skin, bones, nervous system, eyes, and endocrine glands.

An arthritis caused by crystals rather than by wear, which is why it arrives overnight and can leave the joint untouched between attacks.

Healthy skin, bone, or other tissue taken from one part of the body and used to replace diseased or injured tissue removed from another part of the body.

An immune response to a person's tumor cells by immune cells present in a donor's transplanted tissue, such as bone marrow or peripheral blood.

A slow-growing blood cancer named for the fringed look of its cells, marked by a large spleen and low counts across the board.

Surgery for breast cancer in which the breast, chest muscles, and all of the lymph nodes under the arm are removed.

A cancer of the blood or bone marrow, such as leukemia or lymphoma.

The bulging of an internal organ through a weak area or tear in the muscle or other tissue that holds it in place.

An intensive drug treatment to kill cancer cells, but that also destroys the bone marrow and can cause other severe side effects.

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.

Two letters on a chart that decide how quickly a drug reaches the blood: into muscle, not into a vein or under the skin.

A rare type of malignant (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…

Intramuscular describes an injection given directly into muscle tissue, allowing medication to be absorbed into the bloodstream over a moderate period.

Site selection turns less on convenience than on muscle bulk, the volume being given, and which nerves and vessels lie underneath.

Within the pelvis, the lower part of the abdomen between the hip bones.