Words I learned today

Here's stuff I learned today in order to understand a pathology report:

1. "Skybalon" is a greek word that is used in the New Testament. It means refuse/dung/garbage. In the pathology/medical world, it means a chunk of tissue that is not part of an organ. For example, a finger-like fatty projection of tissue attached to the colon.
2. "Adnexal mass" means "lump of tissue near uterus". In this case, the ovary and fallopian tube were the "lump".
3. "Sigmoid colon" is a s-shaped section of the colon that attaches to the rectum.
4. "Posterior cul-de-sac" (did you know that your body has walls, gutters, and a cul-de-sac??) is the area behind the uterus but above the rectum.
5. "Obturator lymph node" is a lymph node near or attached to the obturator artery which comes down your spine and then branches like a tree in the pelvic area, with branches headed towards the legs.
6. "Cecal" is where the small intestine attaches to the large intestine.
7. "Cribriform" means pierced with holes, like a sieve.
8. "Metastatic" means cancer that has spread from somewhere else.
9. "Carcinoma" means an invasive, malignant tumor from epithelial tissue (the inner lining of an organ) that tends to metastasize to other areas of the body.
10. "Psammoma bodies" means round nuggets of calcium or calcified tissue.
11. "Infarcted" means tissue death due to a blocked blood supply
12. "Papillary" means mushroom-shaped tumor with the stem attached to the epithelial layer of an organ.
13. "Adenocarcinoma" means cancer tumors that secrete a fluid like a gland does.
14. "Serous" means body fluid that lubricates organs in your abdomen to reduce friction from movement.

That's it for today's vocabulary lesson. There will be a pop-quiz on this tomorrow, so study up!