Top 50 Medical Prefixes to Know for the PTCB Exam!

What are Medical Prefixes?

Even if you do not know the answer to a PTCB question, you can often work out the likely answer if you know medical prefixes.

Prefixes are used at the beginning of words – for example:

• Hypo-
• Brady-
• An-

These words define the meaning of the word.

For example:

• hypo- and tension, referring to low blood pressure.
• hypo- and thyroidism, referring to low thyroid hormone.
• hypo- and glycemia, referring to low blood sugar.

The opposite of hypo is hyper – which refers to elevated beyond the normal range. Hypertension refers to high blood pressure. Hyperglycemia refers to high blood sugar levels – and hyperthyroidism refers to excessive thyroid hormone levels and its effects on the body.

Suffixes are important, too. Unlike prefixes, suffixes appear at the end of words.

To give some examples, ‘-itis’ is a suffix that refers to inflammation.

No matter what word goes before ‘-itis’, it means something is inflamed:

• Appendicitis – inflammation of the appendix.
• Glossitis – inflammation of the tongue.
• Arthritis – inflammation of joints.
• Gastritis – inflammation of the lining of the stomach.
• Hepatitis – inflammation of the liver.

Of course, these words are combinations of prefixes and suffixes.

In the case of hepatitis, the prefix hepat- always refers to hepatic, or related to the liver. The prefix arth- always refers to bone joints. The list goes on (hepatitis: hepat + itis = liver + inflammation).

By knowing medicine prefixes and suffixes, it accelerates your knowledge base of disease, anatomy, and pathology. You can work things out. As alluded to earlier, medical prefixes equip you with the ability to work out answers where previously you may have had no idea at all. On the PTCB exam, you may be asked questions about common disease states. It’s important that you know the vocabulary to help you answer these PTCB test questions.

Below, we have put together some of the most common medical prefixes you need to know.

During your career as a pharmacy technician you will come across many more examples. Though they may seem difficult to learn at first, you can – with enough revision – quickly commit these to memory.

Top 50 Medical Prefixes!