Understanding The Terms Your Doctor May Use When Discussing Psoriasis
There is nothing quite so frustrating as when you are in the doctor's office and he/she is using terms to describe your medical condition or treatment that are way over your head because they are not in "laymen's language", but in medical jargon. Only another doctor or a nurse would be able to understand the meaning of his/her part of the conversation.
Here is a listing of some of the most commonly used terms regarding the skin condition - psoriasis. After the term is a brief explanation of what the term really means so that hopefully you can understand the term better. You a perhaps surprise your doctor at the next visit when you actually can use some of these terms in appropriate ways!
The terms below are only some of the terms you will be hearing in conversations concerning your psoriasis.
Abnormal - When your doctor is speaking about test results or the condition of your skin cells and the term abnormal is used it really means that the structure, position or condition of say the skin cells or whatever is the topic of conversation is not what is normally expected in healthy skin or whatever the topic is.
Acute - This term simply means that a symptom or disease or whatever the term is being used to describe is in an abrupt phase or is an illness that is of short duration, is a rapidly progressing illness or that you need urgent care regarding the symptom or disease.
Anemia - This is a term that describes a condition and means that there are an amount of red blood cells in your system that is less than the normal quantity in your blood steam. Another word that you may hear instead of red blood cells is: hemoglobin. The red blood cells are the "vehicle" used by the body to carry oxygen to where it needs to go. Less red blood cells means less oxygen is being carried.
Chronic: This term is used to describe something that lasts a long time. In medical areas it usually means a disease or symptom...chronic bronchitis is an example.
Inflammation: This is a reaction that the body makes in response to an injury, or irritation. It usually looks like a reddened area that is swollen and usually painful. Usually an inflammation is recognized as a nonspecific immune response.
Phototherapy: A form of treatment that uses light such as bili-lights to treat an infant with jaundice.
PUVA: psoralen ultraviolet therapy. The patient is first exposed to drugs that contain chemicals that react with ultraviolet light and then to UVA light. These drugs are called, psoralens.
Scaling: This is the abnormal (remember that term?) shedding of cells that mature more rapidly than normal skin cells are supposed to. These abnormally fast maturing cells accumulate on the upper layer of skin that than is called a lesion.
Side effects: These are problems that occur in direct relation to medication or other treatment and are not a desired effect of the treatment. Chronic: This term is used to describe something that lasts a long time. In medical areas it usually means a disease or symptom...chronic bronchitis is an example.
Inflammation: This is a reaction that the body makes in response to an injury, or irritation. It usually looks like a reddened area that is swollen and usually painful. Usually an inflammation is recognized as a nonspecific immune response.
Phototherapy: A form of treatment that uses light such as bili-lights to treat an infant with jaundice.
PUVA: psoralen ultraviolet therapy. The patient is first exposed to drugs that contain chemicals that react with ultraviolet light and then to UVA light. These drugs are called, psoralens.
Scaling: This is the abnormal (remember that term?) shedding of cells that mature more rapidly than normal skin cells are supposed to. These abnormally fast maturing cells accumulate on the upper layer of skin that than is called a lesion.
Side effects: These are problems that occur in direct relation to medication or other treatment and are not a desired effect of the treatment.
