Catchy Name Needed

ascites
accumulation of fluid in the peritoneal cavity, most often due to cirrhosis

(This is pronounced with three syllables, accent on the long i.)

This is one of those words that I know I've come across before but it hasn't quite stuck in my brain for some reason. I usually think putting those here helps. I'm doing an A&P refresher as part of my next round of continuing education, and I definitely can use the refresher since I'm not doing this stuff on a day-to-day basis. If I was, I'm sure I'd know this one by now. (Actually, I suspect the picture on the Wikipedia page may be enough to make me remember. Don't go look if you're delicate, it's a bit gross.)

No man's land
the area between the distal crease of the palm and the proximal end of the middle phalanx. Also known as Zone 2.

I know the definition above may not quite be in English for everybody, so here's the illustration. I had to think this one over, myself.


Don't ask me why it's called that. It's not in the medical dictionary and not in Wikipedia except as pertains to World War I. I have no idea. Maybe before the days of arthroscopic surgery you didn't fool around with the flexor tendons, I don't know.

I found a list that I was compiling somewhere along the line, so for your entertainment, I give you:


This is not near complete, but it gives you a few of them.

Meanwhile I have finally plowed my way through the last chapter of the anatomy book, so all I have to do is review and I'm done there. Meanwhile, I have also started working on the coding material. The second chapter of coding is a review of anatomy and terminology, so maybe I can overlap those and use it to study for my anatomy final!

edema
abnormal collection of fluid, usually causing swelling


I'm sure a lot of people know this word, but I'm putting it in here anyway because it lets me discuss the mechanisms of edema a little bit, and I thought it was interesting. I like this definition (from the anatomy book) better than the one from the medical terminology book, which was worded the other way around - something on the order of "swelling, usually caused by abnormal collection of fluid in the tissues". The excess fluid arises on a microscopic level, in the interstitium between the capillaries and the cells. Normally the capillaries take out the same volume of fluid that they bring in, keeping things in balance, but when things get out of whack the fluid builds up in the interstitial space and eventually becomes noticeable as swelling. One example the book gave was hypoalbuminemia - a lack of albumin, which is a protein, in the blood. The presence of the proteins in the capillaries - in some mysterious way that I don't entirely understand - draws water back in with them, so a lack of proteins means more water stays in the interstitium.

OK, the page is sort of swimming so I think that means it's my bedtime. Hope this makes a reasonable amount of sense!

buffy coat
the light-colored layer of blood that is seen when anticoagulated blood is centrifuged or allowed to stand. It appears as a layer between the plasma and erythrocytes* and is composed of leukocytes and platelets.

*definitions for the definition:
erythrocytes = red blood cells
leukocytes = white blood cells
platelets = the things that make your blood clot


First definition from anatomy class! I had never heard this term before - even in Medical Terminology - and as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan of old, I was amused. (The medical dictionary does not give an origin but I'm guessing it's from "buffer" given the definition.)


In other news, I am as surprised as anybody to report that I liked Terminator: Salvation. Actually I liked it quite a lot more than I expected to, although admittedly this is a low bar since my expectations were practically zero. If I can gather my thoughts sufficiently - always a crapshoot, with me - I may have more to say about this later.

adrenergic
definition 1, given in the chapter on drugs: mimicking the action of the sympathetic nervous system; sympathomimetic
definition 2, given in the chapter on the nervous system: describes activity involving epinephrine

Things you need to know to understand this:
1. epinephrine = adrenaline
2. The sympathetic nervous system controls the "fight or flight" reaction - i.e., things involving adrenaline.
3. Epinephrine, like acetylcholine and dopamine and... (I think there's a couple more, but you probably don't need to know that part!), is a neurotransmitter, meaning a chemical that the nervous system uses to send out instructions.


columbina  and I were discussing this word a while back; it was initially used as a general term for drugs like Sudafed. Neither one of us had ever heard it before. So when it came up again in this chapter, with a completely different definition, I was interested. The thing that gave me a sudden "aha" moment was that there was a parallel adjective for acetylcholine: cholinergic. One word-part that I tend to miss over and over is "erg," as in ergo, work. (I think I tend to read it as part of the "like or pertaining to" ending of adjectives, like "-ic.") But if nervous system activity involving epinephrine is adrenergic and activity involving acetylcholine is cholinergic - even I didn't manage to miss that one. (Also bear in mind that the trade name Sudafed is basically short for pseudo-epinephrine - in other words, it's a stimulant. I am not clear on why that should help to clear up your nose, though. Anybody?) So really the difference beween the two definitions is that they're talking about adrenergic drugs vs. the chemicals that your body manufactures on its own.

I finished going through this chapter; now I have to review the two chapters (the endocrine system and the nervous system); then there's just one more chapter, which is just called The Senses. One chapter and three tests, including the final. Yuck. Sometimes I think I'm never going to finish this.

exophthalamos
protrusion of the eyeballs, as seen in Graves disease


Did you know there was a fancy medical name for this? I didn't. (Not that I'm surprised, really, but still....)

I finished going through the chapter on the endocrine system yesterday and now I'm starting the nervous system - they're both on the same test and I noticed that the average grade on this test is lower than most. Now that I've read the endocrine chapter I'm not surprised - there's a lot to remember. Lots of endocrine glands, a couple of which I've never even heard of (parathyroid? really?) and some of the glands secrete six or seven different hormones. I'm sure they won't really expect us to have all of that memorized, but I'd like to at least have some clue about it!



A couple of links, one medical and one not:

Really fascinating article about how Apgar scores for babies came to be. (I'm never 100% sure about whether you can see some of these without a login - tell me if you have trouble!)

Tangential to the Sotomayor nomination, here's drdenny about the "mainstream" and how the political parties are fighting for possession of that rhetorical territory.

dyspareunia
pain during sexual intercourse


I came right over here to put this one on the computer because it baffled me looking at it. Past "dys-" which just means "bad" or painful, I didn't see any word roots to latch onto for this one. Turns out that's because the main root is Greek: pareunos, which meas "lying beside". Don't throw this greek stuff at me, people - it's too late at night and I just don't do Greek.

Oh, I did take my third test last week; it was another 96. (Don't ask me what I missed on this one; I've wiped it from my mind already.) So I am now past all of that and can move on to the female reproductive system and pregnancy and birth, thus the choice of word.

calcaneus
the largest of the tarsal bones; it forms the heel and articulates with the cuboid anteriorly and the talus above.

I love how the medical dictionary doesn't just define it as "the heel" - no, it's the bone that forms the heel. Whatever. Medical terminology is like a foreign language, really. And I suspect that medical coding, some of the time at least, is just being the doctor-to-insurance-company translator. The funny thing is that most doctors mostly know how to translate it all into English since they have to, to be able to to deal with patients. Medical terminology is just this little private doctor-to-doctor language. I know there's reasons for that but it still gets a little comical.