Test, Imaging and Diagnosis Terms

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.

A procedure in which a skin abnormality and a thin layer of surrounding skin are removed with a small blade for examination under a microscope.

A positive result proves the immune system remembers the substance, which is not the same as proving it causes symptoms.

Sound bounces back wherever one tissue meets another, so the picture is assembled from echoes rather than from shadows.

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

Reading what a substance is made of by seeing which wavelengths it absorbs, emits or bends, since every material has a signature.

A detailed picture of areas inside the body.

A t test is a statistical method that determines whether an observed difference between the average values of two groups likely reflects a real effect.

A substance given in a quantity too small to have any effect, chosen purely so its movement through the body can be watched.

The everyday scan done with a probe on the belly wall, trading fine detail for a wide view and no radiation at all.

The same beam that produces a picture at low dose destroys cancer cells at high dose, and only the amount and aiming differ.

A procedure in which radio waves and a powerful magnet linked to a computer are used to make detailed pictures of areas inside the body.