Definitions Flashcards
ABSCESS
Localized collections of pus caused by suppuration buried in a tissue, an organ, or a confined space.
ADENOCARCINOMA
Malignant tumor of glandular epithelium.
ADENOMA
Benign tumor of glandular epithelium.
ADHESION
Adhesions are fibrous bands of scar tissue that form between internal organs and tissues, joining them together abnormally.
AGENESIS
Complete absence of an organ or is anlage.
AMYLOIDOSIS
Disorder characterized by the extracellular deposits of proteins that are prone to aggregate and form insoluble fibrils.
ANAPLASIA
Dedifferentiation, or loss of structural and functional differentiation of malignant tumors.
ANEURYSM
Congenital or acquired dilations of blood vessels or the heart.
APLASIA
Incomplete development of an organ or its anlage.
APOPTOSIS
Pathway of cell death in which cells activate enzymes that degrade the cells’ own nuclear DNA and nuclear and cytoplasmic proteins.
ARTERIOSCLEROSIS
Hardening of the arteries, arterial wall thickening and loss of elasticity.
ARTERITIS
Arterial wall inflammation.
ASCITES
Extravascular fluid collection (effusion) in the peritoneal cavity.
ATELECTASIS
Loss of lung volume caused by inadequate expansion of air spaces.
ATHEROSCLEROSIS
Characterized by intimal lesions called atheromas (or atheromatous or atherosclerotic plaques) that impinge on the vascular lumen and can rupture to cause sudden occlusion.
ATRESIA
Absence of an opening, usually of a hollow visceral organ or duct.
ATROPHY
Shrinkage in the size of cells by the loss of cell substance.
ATYPIA
Structural abnormality in a cell due to reactive or neoplastic processes
AUTOLYSIS
Enzymatic digestion of cells (especially dead or degenerate) by enzymes present within them (autogenous).
BALANITIS
Local inflammation of the glans penis.
BIOPSY
Process involving extraction of sample cells or tissues for examination to determine the presence or extent of a disease.
BLASTOMA
Embryonal tumor, more common in children, that is caused by malignancies in precursor cells, often called blasts, characterized by small blue cells.
CARCINOGENESIS
Multistep process resulting from the accumulation of multiple genetic alterations that collectively give rise to the transformed phenotype causing malignant neoplasms.
CARCINOID
Malignant tumors composed of cells that contain dense-core neurosecretory granules in there cytoplasm, may
secrete hormonally active polypeptides. Applied only in lung tumor classification of neuroendocrine tumors.