Test, Imaging and Diagnosis Terms

A questionnaire used to measure pain.

A procedure in which cells are taken from the inside of the airways that lead to the lungs.

A procedure in which a small amount of C-11 choline (a radioactive form of the vitamin choline) is injected into a vein.

A test used to help diagnose a type of pancreatic tumor called an insulinoma.

A test that measures the level of CA 19-9 in the blood.

A test used to help diagnose a type of pancreatic islet cell tumor called a gastrinoma.

The older name survives in speech, though modern scanners sweep in a spiral and the axial part of it no longer describes them.

A CBC is often the first laboratory test ordered when evaluating unexplained fatigue, infection, bleeding, or bruising.

A laboratory test to measure carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), a substance that is sometimes found in an increased amount in the blood of people who have certain cancers.

A chest x-ray uses a brief pulse of radiation to produce an image of the lungs, heart, and bones of the chest for evaluation.

A scan that builds a walk-through view of the large bowel from x-ray slices, avoiding the camera but not the preparation.

A plain x-ray flattens the body into one picture, while slicing it apart separates structures that would otherwise be stacked on top of each other.

A series of detailed pictures of areas inside the body taken from different angles.

The scanner captures no picture at all; it records absorption from thousands of angles, and the image is calculated afterward.

Surgery to remove a cone-shaped piece of tissue from the cervix and cervical canal.

A test that finds antibodies clinging invisibly to red cells, by adding a second antibody that clumps them into something visible.

The removal of a tissue sample with a wide needle for examination under a microscope.

The removal of a tissue sample with a wide needle for examination under a microscope.

A series of detailed pictures of areas inside the body taken from different angles.

The scan can find a growth but cannot remove or sample one, so anything suspicious still ends in a scope procedure.