-osis, -sis, -sia, -sy, -se

A persistent contracture or disorders of the muscle fibers of a joint, typically acquired before birth and resulting in limited movements and developmental difficulties: Baby Jane's development of normal crawling was hindered by the arthrogryposis which she developed prior to birth and so she had stiffened arm connectives.

A degenerative disease of a joint or other skeletal connections of the body: Julian noticed that his arthrosis was especially painful in the mornings and when the weather was damp.

Disease resulting from infection with ascarid worms.

Infestation with ascarid worms in the gastrointestinal tract producing nonspecific symptoms; especially, diarrhea and anorexia.

An abnormal lack of a mineral reserve that is essential for proteins that stimulate chemical reactions and for the formation of red blood cells of the body: The patient's anemia, or decreased amount of red corpuscles in the blood, was caused by asiderosis and she needed to eat foods rich in iron to overcome her condition.

Infection with the fungus Aspergillus, seen especially in people with a deficient immune system.

The clinical features of aspergillosis can include invasive lung infection and disseminated disease, usually with fever, cough, spitting up blood, and chest pain. Aspergillosis may mimic asthma with cough and inspiratory stridor (noise on breathing in) or sinusitis with fever, and localized pain.

1. The inability to determine the form of an object by touch.
2. Loss of the ability to recognize the shapes of objects by handling them; tactile agnosia.
3. The inability to recognize familiar objects by touch that cannot be explained by a defect of elementary tactile sensation.

1. A loss of the ability to recognize objects by handling them.
2. Etymology: from a-, "no, not" + stereo, a combining form borrowed from Greek, where it meant "solid" (used with reference to hardness, solidity) + -gnosis, "knowledge".

1. A period of reduced metabolic activity (chemical and physical processes involved in the maintenance of life).
2. Either the condition of an inactive larva not yet metamorphosed to a pupa or autointoxication, particularly among insects.

Diagnosis by means of horoscopy (the making and interpretation of predictions of someone's future based on the relative positions of the planets) and palmistry (telling fortunes by lines on the palm of the hand or hands).

1. A form of infantilism (immaturity) that is a result of pituitary insufficiency, in which there is arrested growth (lack of physical development) but no deformities: Because of Joan's ateliosis, she had a very small body and her voice and face resembled those of a child even though she was over 50 years old.
2. Incomplete development which may refer to psychic infantilism or puerilism, and/or to physical dwarfism (microsomia): The unusual acting troupe consisted of people with atelioses; that is, they were dwarfish in stature but they were wonderful actors.

Dormancy induced by relatively low temperatures.

1. A process of progressive thickening and hardening of the walls of medium-sized and large arteries as a result of fat deposits on their inner lining.
2. The accumulation of fatty material, cholesterol, and other substances on the interior walls of the arteries.

This build-up, known as plaque, reduces the elasticity of the vessel wall ("hardening of the arteries"), and impedes blood flow through the vessel.

Atherosclerosis can also trigger the formation of blood clots, which can detach and cause blockage in arteries of the heart, brain, or lungs, leading to heart attack or stroke. Similarly, plaque material can break off and travel through the blood system to obstruct a vessel elsewhere.

It is a progressive disease beginning in childhood, but symptoms, including angina and leg pain, do not begin usually until later in life. Risk factors include high levels of blood cholesterol (especially, low-density lipoproteins, or "bad" cholesterol), diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, obesity, and lack of exercise.

3. A form of arteriosclerosis characterized by the deposition of atheromatous plaques containing cholesterol and lipids on the innermost layer of the walls of large and medium-sized arteries.

Atherosclerosis is responsible for much coronary artery disease (angina and heart attacks) and many strokes.

The lipid deposits in the intima of arteries, producing a yellow swelling on the endothelial surface; a characteristic of atherosclerosis.

1. A nervous disorder that is marked by continual slow movements especially of the extremities and is usually due to a brain lesion.
2. A derangement marked by ceaseless occurrence of slow, sinuous, writhing movements, especially severe in the hands and performed involuntarily, it may occur after hemiplegia and is then known as posthemiplegic chorea.
3. A condition, chiefly in children, of slow, involuntary, wormlike movements of the fingers, toes, hands, and feet, usually resulting from a brain lesion.
4. A constant succession of slow, writhing, involuntary movements of flexion, extension, pronation, and supination of fingers and hands, and sometimes of toes and feet.

Coined by the American nerve specialist William Alexander Hammond (1828-1900) in 1871 from Greek athetos, "not fixed" and suffix -osis, "a state of a disease".