Chapter 5: Terms of Diagnosis,

Immunity, and the Lymphatic System

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 1

Overview of Immunity
• Immunity – a “condition of” (-ity) “not serving” (immun)
disease
• Lymphatic-immune system – “organ system that
functions together to provide a broad prophylaxis or
“guarding against” disease” (Layman, 2007, p. 92)
• Acts as blood filtering system for:
• Bacteremia – a “blood condition of” (-emia)
invading “bacteria” (bacter)
• Cancer cells
• Tumor cells
Lymphatic System
Henry Vandyke Carter [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 2

Overview of Immunity, cont.
• Lymphatic circulation occurs within lymphatic vessels
• “Shadow” the way blood circulates within blood vessels
• Capillaries – tiny, narrow vessels that “have the nature of” (-ary) “tiny hairs” (capill)
• Blood pressure (BP) – pushes blood through blood capillaries
• Also pushes outward, causing a net filtration process
• Filtration product then enters lymphatic capillaries and becomes lymph (resembles
“clear spring water”)
• Lymph then flows into larger lymphatic veins, then into lymphatic ducts.
• Finally, the cleansed fluid returns back to the blood veins
(Layman, 2007, p. 92-94)

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 3

Immune Response
• Antigen – a foreign protein that surrounds the outer membrane of an
invading cell
• Antigen – “produced” (-gen) “against” (anti-)
• Certain types of lymphocytes (lymph cells) act as scouts to detect
antigens
• Lymphocytes then send a message to a second type of lymphocyte,
which, transforms itself into a plasma cell
• Plasma cells – main source of antibodies
• Antibodies – types of proteins that act “against” (anti-) foreign invaders
• Antigen-antibody reaction – Antibodies chemically attach and bind to antigens
on bacterial cells

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 4

Immune Response, cont.
• Lysis – chemical “breakdown” (lys) that bacteria undergoes after the
antigen-antibody reaction
• Phagocytosis – a “process of” (-osis) “cell” (cyt) “eating” (phag)
• Wandering macrophage – a “large” (macr) “eater” (phag) that is “present” (-e)
• Cells that wander through lymphatic system and engulf foreign invaders
• Clinical health – lack of disease achieved by immune response
(Layman, 2007, p. 94-96)

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 5

Summary of Terms
Key Terms
• immunity • phagocytosis
• prophylactic • lymphatic
• lymphocyte
(Table 5.1, Layman, 2007, p. 97)

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 6

Diagnosis
• Diagnosis – “a condition of” (-is) “knowledge” (gnos) “through” (dia-)
• E.g., acute coryza
• Acute – “presence of” (-e) something “sudden” (acut)
• Coryza – Greek for “runny nose”; also called rhinitis
• Symptoms – “happenings”
• Examples of other cold symptoms:
• Edema (“swelling”) of nasal passages
• Congestion – a “process of” (-ion) one’s nasal passages becoming “stuffed up”
(congest)

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 7

Diagnosis, cont.
• Clinical signs – “marks” of illness or disease detected by a doctor or
examiner
• E.g., Febrile – “having” (-ile) a moderate “fever” (febr)
• Syndrome – “together” (syn); from Greek, “running together”
• Clinical syndrome – a group of clinical symptoms and signs that “run together”
in a particular patient at the same time
• Prodrome – “a running” (drome) “before” (pro-)
• E.g., malaise – a feeling of body weakness or “discomfort”
• Prognosis – “a condition of” (-is) “knowledge” (gnos) “before” (pro-)
(Layman, 2007, p. 98-100)

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 8

Diagnostic Tools and Techniques
• Techniques:
• Palpation – “a process of” (-ion) “touching” (palpat)
• E.g., use of abdominal palpation to diagnose an enlarged liver
• Percussion – “a process of” (-ion) “striking” (percuss)
• Tapping a body surface with the fingertips in order to evaluate size, borders, and
consistency of underlying internal organs
• Auscultation – “a process of (-ion) “listening” (auscult)
• In ancient times, physicians placed an ear directly on the patient’s body surface
• Now, stethoscopes are used
(Layman, 2007, p. 100-101)

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 9

The Stethoscope
• René Laennec – French physician (1781-1826) who
invented the stethoscope
• Stethoscope – “an instrument to examine” (scope)
the sounds of the “chest” (steth)
• Hollow, wooden cylinder over which Laennec
placed his ears
• Produced amplification – “enlargement
(boosting)” of chest sounds
(Layman, 2007, p. 101)

Four Laennec Stethoscopes

By Wellcome Images licensed under [CC BY 4.0], via Wikimedia
Commons.

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 10

Ultrasound
• Ultrasonics – science “pertaining to” (-ic) vibrations that are far
“beyond” (-ultra) the range of audible “sound” (son)
• Ultrasound technology – developed by Ian Donald, a British
physician
• Donald altered ultrasonic technology used during World War II to detect
enemy submarines
• Medical ultrasonography – the “process of recording” (-graphy) extremely
high-frequency sound waves reflected off internal body structures

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 11

Ultrasound, cont.
• Sonogram – visible tracing resulting from this process
• E.g., fetal sonograms
• Fetus – unborn “offspring” (fet) during later stages of pregnancy
• Prenatal problems – those that occur “before” (pre-) “birth” (nat)
(Layman, 2007, p. 101-103)

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 12

X-rays
• Radiography – the “process of recording” (-graphy)
x-“rays” (radi)
• W.K. Röntgen – German physicist who discovered x-
rays.
• Produced the first radiogram – “x-ray” (radi)
“record” (gram)
• Fluoroscopes – “instruments that examine” (-scopes)
the interior of the body by casting x-ray “shadows”
(fluor) of them

Early x-ray picture

By Wilhelm Röntgen; current version created by Old Moonraker.
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 13

X-rays, cont.
• Computed axial tomography scan – (CAT scan or CT scan); modern
advanced radiological scan
• Tomogram – an x-ray “record” (-gram) of only a particular “cut or slice” (tom)
through the body
• Tomography – “the process of recording” (-graphy) these thin cuts
(Layman, 2007, p. 103-104)

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 14

The Cause of Illness
• Etiology – the “study of” (-ology) disease “causes” (eti)
• Etiological – “Cause-related”
• When the cause for an illness is not found, it is called essential or
idiopathic.
• Idiopathic – “own” (idio) private “disease” (path)
(Layman, 2007, p. 105

BIO 101: Medical Terminology 15

Summary of Terms
Key Terms
• diagnosis • percussion
• acute • auscultation
• rhinitis • stethoscope
• prodrome • ultrasonography
• prognosis • etiology
(Layman, 2007, p. 106)

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Case History
Key terms from medical case history:
• Palatine – “refers to” (-ine) the “roof of the mouth” (palat)
• Lingual – “relates to” (-al) the “tongue” (lingu)
• Pharyngeal – “relates to” (-al) the “throat” (pharynx)
• Adenoids – “gland” (aden) “resemblers” (-oids)
• Adenoiditis – “inflammation” (-itis) of the adenoids
• Adenoid hypertrophy – “a process of” (-y) “excessive” (hyper) “stimulation or
nourishment” (troph) of the adenoids

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Case History, cont.
• Tonsillitis - “inflammation” (-itis) of the tonsils
• Chronic – present for a long “time” (chron)
• Cephalalgia – an “ache or pain condition” (-algia) located within the “head”
(cephal)
• Cervical – the “collar” (cervic) area of the neck
• Contraindicated – “against” (contra-) something
• Tonsillectomy/Adenoidectomy – “removal of” (-ectomy) the tonsils and
adenoids
(Layman, 2007, p. 107-109)

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