Medical words of the moment

Over the past few months I’ve been steadily collecting medical terms that I like. To make them last longer I’ll try to dole them out across a few posts. Also, I’m sure I’ll continue to identify other cool ones as time goes on, so watch for updates.

hyperammonemia - the presence of an excess of ammonia in the blood [This one holds a special place in my heart because I encountered it on my first day as a medical editor. Terms like that proved the new job would definitely be a change from editing elementary school math textbooks.]

[Actually, I kind of like all -emia words. Some examples:]
hypercalcemia - the presence of an excess of calcium in the blood

hyponatremia - deficiency of sodium in the blood

Note: Although AMA and my work both use Stedman’s as the preferred medical dictionary of reference, I plan to use slightly abridged definitions from the online Merriam-Webster’s Medical Dictionary for their broad appeal (you don’t have to look up another definition for a word that’s describing the definition you actually want to know - that’s always a turnoff).