In the sentence "Her prognosis after surgery was excellent", prognosis means

  • A. the identification of the disease
  • B. the forecast of the likely course of the illness
  • C. the surgical procedure itself
  • D. the patient's medical history

Explanation

Prognosis looks forward, predicting how the illness will develop, while diagnosis identifies what the illness is, and the pro prefix meaning before or forward is the clue. Confusing the two is the commonest error with this pair. Both are standard medical vocabulary in MDCAT comprehension passages.

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