Asbestos Glossary of Terms

Abatement: A diminution, decrease or easing. In medicine there may be abatement of pain or any other symptom or sign. In the environment there may abatement in the degree of pollution. See also: Abate.

Abdomen: The belly , that part of the body that contains all of the structures between the chest and the pelvis . The abdomen is separated anatomically from the chest by the diaphragm , the powerful muscle spanning the body cavity below the lungs .
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Abnormal: Not normal. Deviating from the usual structure, position, condition, or behavior. In referring to a growth, abnormal may mean that it is cancerous or premalignant (likely to become cancer ).
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Adjacent: Lying nearby. Related terms include superjacent, subjacent, and circumjacent. From ad-, near + the Latin jacere, to lie = to lie near.

Alveoli: The plural of alveolus. The alveoli are tiny air sacs within the lungs where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place.

Asbestos: A natural material made up of tiny fibers which can lodge in the lungs and lead to cancer or scarring of the lungs. The cancer may be lung cancer or ( mesothelioma ), which is a cancer of the lining of the lungs or other internal organs. The scarring of the lungs is termed asbestosis . Exposure to asbestos usually occurs by breathing contaminated air in workplaces that make or use asbestos or in the air of buildings containing asbestos that are being torn down or renovated.
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Asbestosis: A condition featuring scarring of the lungs caused by inhaled asbestos fibers. Asbestosis is irreversible. It tends to lead to COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), a progressive disorder that can be disabling or fatal.
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Atelectasis: Failure of full expansion of the lung at birth or a collapse thereafter of the lung. The word comes from the Greek "a-" (without) + "telos" (complete) + "rectasis" (expansion) = without complete expansion.

Attention: The ability to focus selectively on a selected stimulus, sustaining that focus and shifting it at will. The ability to concentrate.
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Bacterial: Of or pertaining to bacteria. For example, a bacterial lung infection.

Biopsy: The removal of a sample of tissue for purposes of diagnosis. (Many definitions of "biopsy" stipulate that the sample of tissue is removed for examination under a microscope. This may or may not be the case. The diagnosis may be achieved by other means such as by analysis of chromosomes or genes.)
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Blood: The familiar red fluid in the body that contains white and red blood cells, platelets, proteins, and other elements. The blood is transported throughout the body by the circulatory system. Blood functions in two directions: arterial and venous. Arterial blood is the means by which oxygen and nutrients are transported to tissues while venous blood is the means by which carbon dioxide and metabolic by-products are transported to the lungs and kidneys, respectively, for removal from the body.

Breathing: The process of respiration, during which air is inhaled into the lungs through the mouth or nose due to muscle contraction, and then exhaled due to muscle relaxation.

Calcification: The process of building bone by suffusing tissues with calcium salts. Also called ossification.

Calcium: A mineral found mainly in the hard part of bones, where it is stored. Calcium is added to bones by cells called osteoblasts and is removed from bones by cells called osteoclasts. Calcium is essential for healthy bones. It is also important for muscle contraction, heart action, nervous system maintenance, and normal blood clotting. Food sources of calcium include dairy foods, some leafy green vegetables such as broccoli and collards, canned salmon, clams, oysters, calcium-fortified foods, and tofu. According to the National Academy of Sciences, adequate intake of calcium is 1,200 milligrams a day (four glasses of milk) for men and women 51 and older, 1,000 milligrams a day for adults 19 through 50, and 1,300 milligrams a day for children 9 through 18. The upper limit for calcium intake is 2.5 grams daily.

Cancer: An abnormal growth of cells which tend to proliferate in an uncontrolled way and, in some cases, to metastasize (spread).
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Chest: The area of the body located between the neck and the abdomen . The chest contains the lungs , the heart and part of the aorta . The walls of the chest are supported by the dorsal vertebrae , the ribs , and the sternum .
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Chest X-ray: Commonly used to detect abnormalities in the lungs, but can also detect abnormalities in the heart, aorta, and the bones of the thoracic area. Metallic objects, such as jewelry are removed from the chest and neck areas for a chest x-ray to avoid interference with x-ray penetration and improve accuracy of the interpretation.

Chronic: This important term in medicine comes from the Greek chronos, time and means lasting a long time.
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Clinical: 1. Having to do with the examination and treatment of patients. 2. Applicable to patients. A laboratory test may be of clinical value (of use to patients).
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Computerized tomography: Pictures of structures within the body created by a computer that takes the data from multiple X-ray images and turns them in pictures.
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Condition: The term "condition" has a number of biomedical meanings including the following:

1. An unhealthy state, such as in "this is a progressive condition."
2. A state of fitness, such as "getting into condition."
3. Something that is essential to the occurrence of something else; essentially a "precondition."
4. As a verb: to cause a change in something so that a response that was previously associated with a certain stimulus becomes associated with another stimulus; to condition a person, as in behavioral conditioning.

Cor: The Latin word for the heart. For example, cor pulmonale is heart disease that results from abnormally high resistance to the passage of blood through the lungs. Cor biloculare is a two-chambered heart resulting from failure of development of the walls that normally separate the two atria from each other and separate the two ventricles from one another.
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Cor pulmonale: Heart disease that results from abnormally high resistance to the passage of blood through the lungs; it often leads to right heart failure.
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Cough: A rapid expulsion of air from the lungs typically in order to clear the lung airways of fluids, mucus, or material. Also called tussis.

CT scan: Computerized tomography scan. Pictures of structures within the body created by a computer that takes the data from multiple X-ray images and turns them into pictures on a screen. CT stands for computerized tomography.
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Cure: 1. To heal, to make well, to restore to good health. Cures are easy to claim and, all too often, difficult to confirm.
2. A time without recurrence of a disease so that the risk of recurrence is small, as in the 5-year cure rate for malignant melanoma .
3. Particularly in the past, a course of treatment. For example, take a cure at a spa.
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Cyanosis: A bluish color of the skin and the mucous membranes due to insufficient oxygen in the blood. For example, the lips may show cyanosis. Cyanosis can be evident at birth, as in a "blue baby" who has a heart malformation that permits blood that is not fully oxygenated to enter the arterial circulation. Cyanosis can also appear at any time later in life.
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Diagnosis: 1 The nature of a disease ; the identification of an illness. 2 A conclusion or decision reached by diagnosis. The diagnosis is rabies . 3 The identification of any problem. The diagnosis was a plugged IV.
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Disease: Illness or sickness often characterized by typical patient problems (symptoms) and physical findings (signs). Disruption sequence: The events that occur when a fetus that is developing normally is subjected to a destructive agent such as the rubella (German measles) virus.

Effusion: Too much fluid, an outpouring of fluid. A hemorrhagic effusion is one that has blood within the fluid. A pericardial effusion is an outpouring of fluid within the fibrous sac (the pericardium) that surrounds the heart. The lungs are covered by two-layered membranes which are called the pleura. A pleural effusion involves the presence of an excessive amount of pleural fluid (between the two layers of the pleural membranes). The term "effusion" comes from the Latin "effusio" meaning a pouring out.

Electron microscopy: Abbreviated EM. Microscopy in which an electron beam replaces light to form the image.
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Environmental Protection Agency: The US government agency founded to "protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment--air, water, and land--upon which life depends." The Environmental Protection Agency is known as the EPA.
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Esophagus: The tube that connects the pharynx (throat) with the stomach. The esophagus lies between the trachea (windpipe) and the spine. It passes down the neck, pierces the diaphragm just to the left of the midline, and joins the cardiac (upper) end of the stomach. In an adult, the esophagus is about 25 centimeters (10 inches) long. When a person swallows, the muscular walls of the esophagus contract to push food down into the stomach. Glands in the lining of the esophagus produce mucus, which keeps the passageway moist and facilitates swallowing. Also known as the gullet or swallowing tube. From the Greek oisophagos, from oisein meaning to bear or carry + phagein, to eat.

Family: 1. A group of individuals related by blood or marriage or by a feeling of closeness. 2. A biological classification of related plants or animals that is a division below the order and above the genus. 3. A group of genes related in structure and in function that descended from an ancestral gene. 4. A group of gene products similarly related in structure and function and of shared genetic descent. 5. Parents and their children. The most fundamental social group in humans.

Fiber : The parts of plants that cannot be digested, namely complex carbohydrates. Also known as bulk or roughage.
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Flu: Short for influenza. The flu is caused by viruses that infect the respiratory tract which are divided into three types, designated A, B, and C. Most people who get the flu recover completely in 1 to 2 weeks, but some people develop serious and potentially life-threatening medical complications, such as pneumonia. Much of the illness and death caused by influenza can be prevented by annual influenza vaccination.

Fungal: Pertaining to a fungus. For example, a fungal skin infection.

Gallbladder: A pear-shaped organ just below the liver that stores the bile secreted by the liver. During a fatty meal, the gallbladder contracts, delivering the bile through the bile ducts into the intestines to help with digestion. Abnormal composition of bile leads to formation of gallstones, a process termed cholelithiasis. The gallstones cause cholecystitis, inflammation of the gallbladder.

Health: As officially defined by the World Health Organization, a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Heart: The muscle that pumps blood received from veins into arteries throughout the body. It is positioned in the chest behind the sternum (breastbone; in front of the trachea, esophagus, and aorta; and above the diaphragm muscle that separates the chest and abdominal cavities. The normal heart is about the size of a closed fist, and weighs about 10.5 ounces. It is cone-shaped, with the point of the cone pointing down to the left. Two-thirds of the heart lies in the left side of the chest with the balance in the right chest.
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Heart failure : Inability of the heart to keep up with the demands on it and, specifically, failure of the heart to pump blood with normal efficiency. When this occurs, the heart is unable to provide adequate blood flow to other organs such as the brain, liver and kidneys. Heart failure may be due to failure of the right or left or both ventricles. The signs and symptoms depend upon which side of the heart is failing. They can include shortness of breath (dyspnea), asthma due to the heart (cardiac asthma), pooling of blood (stasis) in the general body (systemic) circulation or in the liver's (portal) circulation, swelling ( edema ), blueness or duskiness (cyanosis), and enlargement (hypertrophy) of the heart.
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Infection: The growth of a parasitic organism within the body. (A parasitic organism is one that lives on or in another organism and draws its nourishment therefrom.) A person with an infection has another organism (a "germ") growing within him, drawing its nourishment from the person.
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Inflammation: A basic way in which the body reacts to infection , irritation or other injury, the key feature being redness, warmth, swelling and pain . Inflammation is now recognized as a type of nonspecific immune response .
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Kidney: One of a pair of organs located in the right and left side of the abdomen which clear "poisons" from the blood, regulate acid concentration and maintain water balance in the body by excreting urine. The kidneys are part of the urinary tract. The urine then passes through connecting tubes called "ureters" into the bladder. The bladder stores the urine until it is released during urination.

Laboratory: A place for doing tests and research procedures and preparing chemicals, etc. Although "laboratory" looks very like the Latin "laboratorium" (a place to labor, a work place), the word "laboratory" came from the Latin "elaborare" (to work out, as a problem, and with great pains), as evidenced by the Old English spelling "elaboratory" designating "a place where learned effort was applied to the solution of scientific problems."
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Larynx: The larynx is the portion of the breathing, or respiratory, tract containing the vocal cords which produce vocal sound. It is located between the pharynx and the trachea. The larynx, also called the voice box, is a 2-inch-long, tube-shaped organ in the neck.

Lips: Aside from the lips of the mouth, there are two pairs of lips at the entrance to the vagina. They are the labia majora (the larger outside pair) and the labia minora (the smaller inside pair). Together they form part of the vulva (the female external genitalia).

Lungs: The lungs are a pair of breathing organs located with the chest which remove carbon dioxide from and bring oxygen to the blood. There is a right and left lung.

Malignant: 1. Tending to be severe and become progressively worse, as in malignant hypertension. 2. In regard to a tumor, having the properties of a malignancy that can invade and destroy nearby tissue and that may spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body.
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Mesothelioma : A malignant tumor of the mesothelium. The mesothelium is the thin lining on the surface of the body cavities and the organs that are contained within them. Most mesotheliomas begin as one or more nodules that progressively grow to form a solid coating of tumor surrounding the lung, abdominal organs, or heart.
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Microscopic: So small it cannot be seen without the aid of microscope. As opposed to macroscopic (large enough to be seen with naked eye). A tiny tumor is microscopic while a big tumor is macroscopic.
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Microscopy: The examination of minute objects by means of a microscope, an instrument which provides an enlarged image of an object not visible with the naked eye.
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Mucus: A thick slippery fluid produced by the membranes lining certain organs such as the nose, mouth, throat, and vagina. Mucus is the Latin word for "a semifluid, slimy discharge from the nose." Note that mucus is a noun while the adjective is mucous.

Obstruction: Blockage of a passageway. See, for example: Airway obstruction; Intestinal obstruction.

Onset: In medicine, the first appearance of the signs or symptoms of an illness as, for example, the onset of rheumatoid arthritis . There is always an onset to a disease but never to the return to good health. The default setting is good health.
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Oropharynx: The area of the throat that is at the back of the mouth. The oropharynx is in contrast to the nasopharynx, the part of the throat that lies behind the nose.

OSHA: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an agency of the US government under the Department of Labor with the responsibility of ensuring safety at work and a healthful work environment.
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Oxygen: A colorless, odorless and tasteless gas that makes up about 20% of the air we breathe (and at least half the weight of the entire solid crust of the earth) and which combines with most of the other elements to form oxides. Oxygen is essential to human, animal and plant life.
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Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia . Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors.
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Peritoneum: The membrane that lines the abdominal cavity and covers most of the abdominal organs. (From the Greek peri- meaning around + tonos meaning a stretching = a stretching around).

Pleura: The thin covering that protects and cushions the lungs. The pleura is made up of two layers of tissue that are separated by a small amount of fluid.

Pleural: Pertaining to the pleura, the thin covering that protects the lungs. The term "pleural" is pronounced like "plural" (but does not have plural meanings).

Pulmonary: Having to do with the lungs. (The word comes from the Latin pulmo for lung).

Radiography: Film records (radiographs) of internal structures of the body. Radiography is made possible by X-rays (or gamma rays) passing through the body to act on a specially sensitized film.

Recur: To occur again. To return. Any symptom (such as fatigue), any sign (such as a heart murmur), or any disease can recur.

Resolution: In genetics , resolution refers to the degree of molecular detail on a physical map of DNA , ranging from low to high.
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Rest: 1. Repose. Relaxation.
2. A fragment of embryonic tissue that has been retained after the period of embryonic development. Also called an embryonic rest.

Risk factor: Something that increases a person's chances of developing a disease.

Scan: As a noun, the data or image obtained from the examination of organs or regions of the body by gathering information with a sensing device.
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Section: 1) In anatomy, a slice of tissue. A biopsy obtained by surgery is usually sectioned (sliced), and these sections are inspected under a microscope. 2) In obstetrics, short for Caesarian section. 3) In surgery, the division of tissue during an operation.

Shingles: An acute infection caused by the herpes zoster virus, the same virus as causes chickenpox. Shingles is most common after the age of 50 and the risk rises with advancing age. Shingles occurs because of exposure to chickenpox or reactivation of the herpes zoster virus. The virus remains latent (dormant) in nerve roots for many years following chickenpox.
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Sign: Any objective evidence of disease. Gross blood in the stool is a sign of disease. It can be recognized by the patient, doctor, nurse, or others. In contrast, a symptom is, by its nature, subjective. Abdominal pain is a symptom. It is something only the patient can know.
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Silica: The chief component of sand and a substance responsible for lung disease and cancer.
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Sputum: The mucus and other matter brought up from the lungs, bronchi, and trachea that one may cough up and spit out or swallow. The word "sputum" is borrowed directly from the Latin "to spit." Called also expectoration.

Steroid: A general class of chemical substances that are structurally related to one another and share the same chemical skeleton (a tetracyclic cyclopenta[a]phenanthrene skeleton).
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Throat: The throat is the anterior (front) portion of the neck beginning at the back of the mouth , consisting anatomically of the pharynx and larynx . The throat contains the trachea and a portion of the esophagus .
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Tissue: A tissue in medicine is not like a piece of tissue paper. It is a broad term that is applied to any group of cells that perform specific functions. A tissue in medicine need not form a layer. Thus,

• The bone marrow is a tissue;
• Connective tissue consists of cells that make up fibers in the framework supporting other body tissues; and
• Lymphoid tissue is the part of the body's immune system that helps protect it from bacteria and other foreign entities.

Tobacco: A South American herb, formally known as Nicotiana tabacum , whose leaves contain 2-8% nicotine and serve as the source of smoking and smokeless tobacco .
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Tomography: The process for generating a tomogram , a two-dimensional image of a slice or section through a three-dimensional object. Tomography achieves this remarkable result by simply moving an x-ray source in one direction as the x-ray film is moved in the opposite direction during the exposure to sharpen structures in the focal plane, while structures in other planes appear blurred. The tomogram is the picture; the tomograph is the apparatus; and tomography is the process.
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Tumor: An abnormal mass of tissue. Tumors are a classic sign of inflammation, and can be benign or malignant (cancerous). There are dozens of different types of tumors. Their names usually reflect the kind of tissue they arise in, and may also tell you something about their shape or how they grow. For example, a medulloblastoma is a tumor that arises from embryonic cells (a blastoma) in the inner part of the brain (the medulla). Diagnosis depends on the type and location of the tumor. Tumor marker tests and imaging may be used; some tumors can be seen (for example, tumors on the exterior of the skin) or felt (palpated with the hands).
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Viral: Of or pertaining to a virus. For example, "My daughter has a viral rash ."
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Voice box:The voice box, or larynx, is the portion of the respiratory (breathing) tract containing the vocal cords which produce sound. It is located between the pharynx and the trachea. The larynx, also called the voice box, is a 2-inch-long, tube-shaped organ in the neck.

Wheezing: A whistling noise in the chest during breathing when the airways are narrowed or compressed.

X-ray: 1. High-energy radiation with waves shorter than those of visible light. X-rays possess the properties of penetrating most substances (to varying extents), of acting on a photographic film or plate (permitting radiography), and of causing a fluorescent screen to give off light (permitting fluoroscopy). In low doses X-rays are used for making images that help to diagnose disease, and in high doses to treat cancer . Formerly called a Roentgen ray. 2. An image obtained by means of X-rays.
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CT Scan - CAT Scan / CT Scan (Computerized Axial Tomography) information. Learn what a CAT Scan is, why it is performed, risks, and how to prepare for a CAT scan Source:MedicineNet Early Cancer Detection And Treatment - Learn about cancer detection - symptoms, exams, diagnosis and treatment for different types of cancer on MedicineNet.com Source:Government Chest X-ray - A chest x-ray is a radiology test that involves exposing the chest briefly to radiation to produce an image of the chest and the internal organs of the chest. chest x-ray can be used to define abnormalities of the lungs such as excessive fluid, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, cysts, and cancers. Source:MedicineNet Read 24 more Asbestos-Related Disorders related articles ... Chemo for Mesothelioma Offers Limited Survival Benefits Asbestos Linked to Throat Cancer Health Highlights: June 22, 2007