Medical Terminology — Previous Year Questions
These reflect the style of medical terminology questions commonly tested on medical coding certification exams (CPC, CCA), which typically test word-building recognition directly.
Q1. Decode the term "osteoarthritis" into its component parts and provide the meaning.
oste/o (bone) + arthr (joint) + -itis (inflammation) = inflammation involving bone and joint structures — commonly understood clinically as a degenerative joint condition affecting bone and cartilage at the joint.
Q2. Which suffix indicates "surgical removal," and how does it differ from the suffix indicating "surgical incision"?
"-ectomy" indicates surgical removal (e.g., appendectomy = removal of the appendix). "-otomy" indicates a surgical incision or cutting into (e.g., tracheotomy = an incision into the trachea) without necessarily removing anything. These are frequently confused on exams specifically because they sound similar but describe different surgical actions.
Q3. What does the prefix "brady-" mean, and provide an example term using it.
"Brady-" means slow. Example: "bradycardia" (brady- + cardi/o + -ia) meaning a slow heart rate.
Q4. A term is documented as "myeloma." Based on word-part decoding alone, what could this term ambiguously refer to, and how is the correct meaning determined?
"Myel/o" can mean either spinal cord or bone marrow depending on context. In this specific case, "myeloma" (myel/o + -oma, meaning tumor) is specifically understood in standard clinical usage as a bone marrow cancer (multiple myeloma being the most well-known form), not a spinal cord tumor — this specific term has a conventionally fixed meaning in practice, illustrating why context and standard usage, not just mechanical decoding, determines correct interpretation for ambiguous roots.
Q5. Explain why "diagnosis" becomes "diagnoses" in plural form rather than "diagnosises."
Medical terminology draws heavily from Latin and Greek, and many terms follow their original language's plural rules rather than standard English pluralization (adding "-s" or "-es"). "Diagnosis" follows a Greek-derived pattern where "-sis" endings become "-ses" in plural form, consistent with related terms like "prognosis" → "prognoses."
Q6. Is "Parkinson's disease" decodable using prefix/root/suffix analysis? Explain your answer.
No — "Parkinson's disease" is an eponym, a term named after a person (Dr. James Parkinson) rather than built from descriptive Latin/Greek word parts. Eponyms must be learned and recognized as whole terms directly; there is no prefix, root, or suffix structure to decode.
Q7. What is the difference in meaning between "-pathy" and "-itis" as suffixes, and provide an example of each.
"-pathy" means disease generally, without specifying inflammation — e.g., "neuropathy" (nerve disease). "-itis" specifically means inflammation — e.g., "neuritis" would specifically indicate nerve inflammation, a narrower and more specific clinical picture than the general "neuropathy." A coder needs to recognize this distinction, since documentation using one term versus the other reflects a genuinely different clinical finding.
Q8. Break down "hepatomegaly" and explain what clinical finding it describes.
hepat/o (liver) + -megaly (enlargement) = enlargement of the liver, a clinical finding (also known by the standalone term "hepatomegaly") that may be documented as a symptom or finding on physical exam or imaging, distinct from a specific liver disease diagnosis itself.