Haem-
If a word begins with ‘haem’ this usually means that it
is something to do with blood. For example, haematology is the study of
blood.
Haematuria
If you have blood in your wee, the doctors may say that
you have haematuria. It’s usually caused by an infection in your urinary
system. Sometimes, the amount of blood is so small, that you can only
see it under a microscope.
Haemoglobin
This is what makes red blood cells red. It’s a kind of
pigment that carries the oxygen to all parts of your body. Each red
blood cell contains about 350 million haemoglobin molecules!
Hamstrings
These are large muscles that run down the back of the leg.
Hand
Your hands are really important – they help you hold
things, grip things tight and also do small fiddly tasks too. What makes
us different from animals is that we have something called ‘opposable
thumbs’, which means that we can touch our thumb and fingers together to
hold things. Like your foot, your hand is made up of lots of small
bones.
Heart
This is the pump made of muscle inside your ribcage that
keeps us all alive. Your heart pumps all the time to push blood around
the body.
Hematoma
This is a collection of blood outside of a blood vessel. One of the most common forms of hematoma is bruising on the skin.
Hemi-
This means 'half' as in hemi-nephrectomy – an operation where half of your kidney is removed.
Hepatitis
A disease that makes your liver swollen and inflamed.
There are different types of hepatitis – A, B and C are the most common.
Each type is passed on in a different way, through blood or bodily
fluids, or polluted water.
Hernia
This is a condition where a muscle has a weak spot which lets your insides bulge out through it. It's fixed in an operation.
Hickman Line
This is a registered name for a soft plastic tube (also
known as a central line) which is inserted under the skin and used to
deliver medicines directly into a patient’s bloodstream.
Hip
Your hip is the joint between your pelvis and your
thighbone. It’s a ‘ball and socket’ joint which means you can move your
leg right round.
Holter monitor (24 hour)
A Holter monitor is a portable device that monitors the
electrical activity in your heart over a 24-hour period. It involves
putting stickers on your chest that link up to a recording device, such
as a tape recorde. This then monitors your heart rate, the shape of the
complexes (in other words how each beat of your heart looks) and gives a
very clear picture about how your heart rhythm is working.
Hormones
These are chemical messengers that switch on and off
processes in the body. For instance, starting puberty or producing more
urine.
Humerus
Your upper arm bone. It connects your shoulder with a ‘ball and socket’ joint and with your elbow with a ‘hinge’ joint.
Hyper-
When this starts a word, it means ‘too much’ of something.
Hypo-
When this starts a word, it means ‘too little’ of something.
