Heart and Circulation Terms

A phlebolith is a small local, usually rounded, calcification within a vein.

Routine enough to be invisible, yet most laboratory results and every unit of donated blood begin with this one procedure.

A polysomnogram, commonly called a sleep study, records brain activity, breathing, heart rhythm, and muscle activity overnight to help diagnose sleep disorders.

Portal hypertension is elevated blood pressure within the vein system draining the digestive organs into the liver, most often caused by cirrhosis.

A vein that ends in a second network of tiny vessels instead of heading back to the heart, most famously the one feeding the liver.

A procedure in which a small amount of radioactive glucose (sugar) is injected into a vein, and a scanner is used to make detailed, computerized pictures of areas inside the body where the glucose…

Both unusually high and unusually low blood potassium levels can disrupt the heart's electrical rhythm, making this mineral closely monitored during illness.

The water-loving member of the statin family, which is why it sidesteps most of the drug interactions that trouble the others.

The main blood vessel that supplies blood to a kidney and its nearby adrenal gland and ureter.

An enzyme found in the liver, heart, and other tissues.

An imaging test used to find overactive parathyroid glands (four pea-sized glands found on the thyroid) and breast cancer cells, and to diagnose heart disease.

SLE is the abbreviation for systemic lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body's own tissues.

Often described as a type of CT scan, which it is not: the radiation comes from inside the patient, not from a tube.

Cancer is found in the lining of the chest wall and may also be found in the lining of the lung, the lining of the diaphragm (the thin muscle below the lungs and heart that separates the chest from…

A fast heart is usually the body responding correctly to something else, and the real question is what that something else is.

A surgeon who specializes in operating on organs inside the chest, including the heart and lungs.

A process that involves either a blood clot or bleeding, such as a heart attack or stroke.

The name splits into three parts, clot, vein and inflammation, and all three are present at once in the affected segment.

A thrombus is a blood clot that forms inside a blood vessel or the heart and can partly or completely obstruct normal blood flow.

Subtype governs almost everything about the outlook, so two people given the same diagnosis on paper can face very different diseases.