| stroke | sudden brain injury from blocked blood flow or bleeding |
| heart attack / MI | injury/death of heart muscle from loss of blood supply; MI means myocardial infarction |
| seizure | episode of abnormal electrical activity in the brain producing changes in movement, sensation, behavior, or awareness |
| asthma | chronic airway condition with variable narrowing/inflammation |
| diabetes | group of disorders involving high blood glucose regulation problems |
| HIV | human immunodeficiency virus |
| AIDS | acquired immunodeficiency syndrome |
| pneumonia | infection/inflammation of lung tissue; the pneumon/o clue helps, but learn the whole word |
| trauma | physical injury or the clinical service treating serious injury |
| fracture | broken bone |
| sprain | ligament injury |
| strain | muscle or tendon injury |
| dislocation | joint surfaces displaced from normal alignment |
| laceration | cut or tear in tissue |
| contusion | bruise |
| bleed | ordinary spoken term for hemorrhage |
| clot | ordinary spoken term often corresponding to thrombus |
| embolism / embolus | material traveling through circulation and blocking a vessel; often a clot, but not always |
| PE | pulmonary embolism in most emergency dialogue; abbreviation can be ambiguous in other contexts |
| aneurysm | abnormal localized widening of a vessel or heart wall |
| edema | swelling caused by fluid in tissues |
| lesion | general term for an abnormal area of tissue |
| mass | abnormal lump/space-occupying finding; not automatically cancer |
| abscess | localized collection of pus from infection |
| obstruction | blockage |
| perforation | abnormal hole through the wall of an organ |
| effusion | abnormal fluid collection in a body space |
| sepsis | dangerous, dysregulated whole-body response to infection causing organ dysfunction |