Medical Terminology: Chemotherapy, Palpitation, and Percussion

This article discusses three medical terminologies: chemotherapy, palpitation, and percussion. It explains the mechanism of chemotherapy and its different types. It also covers the causes of palpitation and its potential risks. Lastly, it describes the assessment technique of percussion and its uses in determining the size, borders, and consistency of body organs.

Running head: MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY
MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY
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1MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the treatment that involves medication and combination of medications
for treating cancer, whose mechanism of action prevents the abnormal cell growth by inhibiting
the microtubule function, DNA synthesis and protein function (von Minckwitz et al., 2012). The
cytotoxic chemotherapy can be cell dependant, arresting the growth of the cancer cells at the
specific phases of the cell cycle. There are several therapies that target the pathway such as the
Alkylating agents, Anti-metabolites, Anti-microtubule agents, antitumor antibiotics and
Topoisomerase II inhibitors (von Minckwitz et al., 2012). The chemotherapy given after the
radiation or the surgery is called the adjuvant chemotherapy, it destroys any cancer cells left in
the body after the surgery and the chemotherapy applied before the surgery is known as the neo-
adjuvant therapy. In this therapy the tumor is shrinked for making removing it easily
surgically(von Minckwitz et al., 2012).
Palpitation
Palpitation is the rapid, strong and irregular heartbeat caused due to stress, exercise,
medications, strong emotional responses, anxiety, panic attacks, and hormonal changes. Heart
palpitation can be a sign of clinical problems like hypothyroidism, arrhythmia, tachycardia,
bradycardia and irregular heart rhythm. Palpitation may lead to cardiac arrest, stroke, and heart
failure (Ershadifar et al., 2014).
Percussion
It is an assessment technique that produces sound by the physician tapping on the chest
wall of the patient. Tapping on the wall of the patient's chest can produce sounds based on the
amount of air present in the lungs. It is mainly done for determining the size, borders and the
consistency of the body organs, the absence or the presence of fluid in body areas (Osadnik et al.,
2012).

2MEDICAL TERMINOLOGY
References
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Saleh, D. K. (2014). Heart palpitation from traditional and modern medicine perspectives.
Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal, 16(2).
Osadnik, C. R., McDonald, C. F., Jones, A. P., & Holland, A. E. (2012). Airway clearance
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Scher, H. I., Fizazi, K., Saad, F., Taplin, M. E., Sternberg, C. N., Miller, K., ... & Armstrong, A.
J. (2012). Increased survival with enzalutamide in prostate cancer after chemotherapy.
New England Journal of Medicine, 367(13), 1187-1197.
von Minckwitz, G., Untch, M., Blohmer, J. U., Costa, S. D., Eidtmann, H., Fasching, P. A., ... &
Jackisch, C. (2012). Definition and impact of pathologic complete response on prognosis
after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in various intrinsic breast cancer subtypes. Journal of
clinical oncology, 30(15), 1796-1804.