Lung and Breathing Terms

A test that measures the amount of oxygen being carried by red blood cells.

Supplemental oxygen given as a treatment for low blood oxygen, delivered at a controlled concentration rather than as much as possible.

A Pancoast tumor is a lung cancer at the lung's apex that can invade nearby nerves, causing distinctive shoulder and arm symptoms.

A substance being studied in the treatment of diarrhea caused by infection with Clostridium difficile (a type of bacteria that can grow without oxygen) in cancer patients.

Because episodes occur during sleep or its transitions, the person experiencing a parasomnia often has no memory of it afterward.

A chemotherapy combination used to treat endometrial, ovarian, head and neck cancers, and non-small cell lung cancer that has spread.

Pertussis is a highly contagious bacterial respiratory infection best known for causing severe, prolonged coughing fits, especially dangerous in young infants.

No single number carries the answer here; the finding lives in the relationship between the measurements taken together.

The pharynx is the shared muscular passage behind the nose and mouth through which both air and food travel before separating into distinct pathways.

Phlegm is thick mucus produced by the airways, often increasing during infection or irritation and distinct from saliva or nasal discharge.

The pleura is a two layered membrane enclosing each lung, producing a thin fluid film that lets the lungs glide smoothly against the chest wall.

The space enclosed by the pleura, which is a thin layer of tissue that covers the lungs and lines the interior wall of the chest cavity.

Fluid around the lung is a finding rather than a diagnosis, and analyzing a sample of it is what points toward the cause.

Stripping out a lining so the lung sticks to the chest wall, which is the aim: a space that can no longer refill.

Pleurodesis is a procedure that deliberately inflames the pleura to fuse its two layers together, preventing recurrent fluid buildup around the lung.

A rare and very aggressive (fast-growing) cancer that forms in tissues of the lung and pleura (a thin layer of tissue that covers the lungs and lines the interior wall of the chest cavity).

Taking a whole lung leaves a space the body must fill, and that space is what separates the operation from smaller lung resections.

Bacteria, viruses, fungi, inhaled material and radiation can all produce pneumonia, so the name describes a pattern of lung injury rather than one illness.

Pneumonitis is inflammation of lung tissue from a noninfectious cause, distinct from pneumonia, which usually implies an infection.

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