Medical Terminology: Cardiovascular and Blood Vessel Prefixes and Suffixes

angi/o

vessel (blood)

aort/o

aorta; largest artery

arteri/o

artery

arteriol/o

arteriole (small artery)

atri/o

atria; atrium

ather/o

plaque; fatty buildup

bol/o

cast; throw

cardi/o

heart

coagul/o

coagulation; clotting

constrict/o

narrowing

coron/o

heart

cyan/o

blue

cyt/o

cell

dilat/o

to enlarge or expand

electr/o

electricity

erythr/o

red

hem/a, hem/o, hemat/o

blood

leuk/o

white

lymph/o, lymphat/o

lymph

lumin/o

light

my/o

muscle

phleb/o

vein

pulmon/o

lung

rhythm/o

rhythm; heartbeat

sept/o

wall; partition

son/o

sound

sphygm/o

pulse

steth/o

chest

systol/o

contraction

tens/o

stretched; strained

thromb/o

clot

tom/o

to cut

vas/o

vessel; duct

vascul/o

blood vessel

ven/i, ven/o

vein

ventricul/o

ventricle

venul/o

venule (small vein)

a-, an-

not; without

anti-

against

brady-

slow

dia-

through; complete

echo-

reflected sound

em-

in

endo-

in; within

epi-

on; over; upon

hyper-

above; above normal; excessive

hypo-

below; below normal; deficient

mega-

large

per-

through

peri-

around; surrounding

poly-

many; much

tachy-

fast

trans-

across

-ant

substance that promotes

-ation

process; condition

-crit

to separate

-e

(noun suffix with no meaning)

-ectomy

surgical removal; excision

-emia

blood condition

-emic

pertaining to blood condition

-gram

record; image

-graph

instrument for recording

-graphy

process of recording

-ia

condition

-in, -ine

chemical; chemical compound; substance

-ism

process; condition

-itis

inflammation

-ive

substance that promotes

-lytic

pertaining to breakdown or destruction

-megaly

enlargement

-meter

measure

-oma

tumor; mass

-or

one who (or something that) takes action or does something

-osis

process; abnormal condition

-pathy

disease

-penia

deficiency

-plasty

surgical repair

-pheresis

removal

-rrhexis

rupture

-sclerosis

hardening; thickening

-stenosis

narrowing; tightening

-stomy

surgical opening

-tension

pressure

-tomy

process of cutting; incision

-trophy

condition of growth or development

-um, -us

structure; tissue; thing

-version

to turn

AV

atrioventricular

BP

blood pressure

bpm

beats per minute

BW

bloodwork

CABG

coronary artery bypass graft

CAD

coronary artery disease

CHF

congestive heart failure

CV

cardiovascular

DNR

do not resuscitate

DOA

dead on arrival

DVT

deep vein thrombosis

ECG, EKG

electrocardiogram

HCT, Hct

hematocrit (the proportion of the volume of blood that contains RBCs)