medical vocabulary

[carlo]

I was trying to figure out what the following words mean. As far as I know Western and Chinese medicine diagnose diseases differently, so there is no exact correspondence between the two sets of words. Sometimes I'm not even sure which is which.

For example, is 痱子 a Chinese or Western diagnosis? What is the difference between 疔疮 and 疖子? Are these infections or symptoms? And what is 疽? Is it a type of 疹 (as in 湿疹 or 麻疹), or something else? And what is a 瘩背?

[elina]

According to 金山词霸：

疔疮

ding1 chuang1

[malignant boil; furuncle] 病名。又名疵疮。因其形小,根深,坚硬如钉状,故名。多因饮食不节,外感风邪火毒及四时不正之气而发

疖子

jie1 zi5

[furuncle] 皮肤病,由葡萄球菌或链状菌侵入毛囊内引起。症状是局部出现充血硬块,化脓,红肿,疼痛

瘩背

da2 bei4

[carbuncle on the back] 中医称生在背部的痈

[skylee]

This may (or may not) be helpful -> http://www.hk-doctor.com/html/dict.php

[xiaocai]

Normally 疽 means necrosis or gangrene, but 炭疽 is anthrax.

湿疹 and 麻疹 are different type of symptoms.

湿疹 is eczema which is mostly caused by dermal inflammation and allergic response.

麻疹 means measles. It is a viral infectious disease.

According to my book, 痱子 is prickly heat. So both Chinese and Western medicines have this diagnosis.

[carlo]

Thanks. So 疔疮 and 瘩背 are words in Chinese medicine, and the rest are used in Western medicine? Unfortunately I don't know much about either. Is 'prickly heat' something that would be familiar to a European doctor, say? Does 疖子 actually mean 'acne' (粉刺)? I should probably ask a Chinese dermatologist....

[xiaocai]

Is 'prickly heat' something that would be familiar to a European doctor

There is another word for prickly heat which is heat rash. I'm not sure if european doctors use it nore not, but they use these two in America.

Does 疖子 actually mean 'acne' (粉刺)

疖子 is an infection caused by streptococcus (as elina's post said); however the pathology of acne is still not very clear, and the inflammatory type of acne is often called 青春痘(puberty pock?) in Chinese . So they are acually different terms for skin diseases even both of them are conditions of follicle and oil gland(sebaceous gland).

[xiaocai]

By the way, my replies are just for reference. If you are likely having any of the conditions, please see doctor.