cardiaco

Cardiaco is an adjective used in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese to denote a relation to the heart. In Italian the form is cardiaco; in Spanish and Portuguese the masculine form is cardíaco and the feminine form is cardíaca. The term derives from the Greek kardia (heart) through Latin cardio- and the suffixes used in Romance languages to form adjectives.

In medical and scientific contexts, cardiaco describes tissues, organs, and processes involving the heart, as well as diseases affecting it. Examples include cardiac muscle (músculo cardíaco in Spanish, tessuto cardiaco in Italian, tecido cardíaco in Portuguese), heart disease (enfermedad cardíaca in Spanish, malattia cardiaca in Italian, doença cardíaca in Portuguese), and cardiac arrhythmia (arritmia cardíaca in Spanish, arritmia cardíaca in Portuguese, aritmia cardiaca in Italian). The related field is cardiology (cardiología in Spanish, cardiologia in Portuguese and Italian).

Cardiaco is an adjective that agrees with gender and number in its language. It is distinct from cardio-, the prefix used to form numerous terms such as cardiovascular and cardiofitness. Cardiac- or cardiaco terms appear across clinical, anatomical, and physiological discussions to specify heart-related aspects, while the prefix cardio- operates as a building block in many scientific terms.