Medical Terminology beginning with the letter A

Abasia – Inability to walk or stand, caused by hysteria.
Ablepsy – Blindness, also Ablepsia, Abopsia.
Abscess – A localized collection of pus buried in tissues, organs, or confined spaces of the body, often accompanied by swelling and inflammation and frequently caused by bacteria. The brain, lung, or kidney (for instance) could be involved. See boil.
Accouchment – childbirth, the period after childbirth.
Acute – (adj.) disease of sudden onset, severe, not chronic.
Addison’s disease – A disease characterized by severe weakness, low blood pressure, and a bronzed coloration of the skin, due to decreased secretion of cortisol from the adrenal gland. Dr. Thomas Addison (1793-1860), born near Newcastle, England, described the disease in 1855. Synonyms: Morbus addisonii, bronzed skin disease.
Aegrotat – Is sick from.
Aegrotantem – Sickness, illness.
Ague – Malarial or intermittent fever characterized by paroxysms (stages of chills, fever, and sweating at regularly recurring times). Also known as “fever and ague,” “chill fever,” “the shakes,” “swamp fever,” “Panama fever,” and “Chagres fever.”
Ague-cake – A form of enlargement of the spleen, resulting from the action of malaria on the system.
American plague – Yellow fever.
Anasarca – Generalized massive edema. see dropsy.
Anchylosis/ankylosis – Abnormal stiffening and immobility of a joint by fusion of the bones.
Angina – Pain in chest brought on by exertion; intense constricting pain especially of the throat, can lead to suffocation; quinsy.
Aphonia – Laryngitis.
Aphtha/aphthae – see thrush.
Aphthous stomatitis – see canker.
Apoplexy – Paralysis due to stroke.
Ascites – see dropsy.
Asphycsia/Asphicsia – Cyanotic and lack of oxygen.
Asthenia – see debility.
Atrophy – Wasting away or diminishing in size.