Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

What Those Medical Abbreviations Really Mean

Nov 08, 2004

What Those Medical Abbreviations Really Mean

Marilyn Fuller Delong, RN

Special from Bottom Line/Health


ost people assume that medical records are only useful to doctors, nurses or other health-care professionals. That's a mistake. Reviewing your records, or those of a loved one, may make it easier to understand a course of treatment... enable you to double-check test results... or simply help you sort out a medical bill.

Now: A federal law passed last year makes access to your records easier. Part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), it requires that doctors, hospitals and clinics let patients inspect and get copies of all of their records.

Reading your records for the first time may make you feel like you've been dropped in a foreign country without a translator. Doctors use hundreds of abbreviations -- most of which make little sense to lay people. Once you have your records, use this list as a guide to common abbreviations...

ARI: acute respiratory infection
ASHD: arteriosclerotic heart disease

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BPH: benign prostatic hyperplasia (noncancerous enlargement of prostate)
BSE: breast self-examination
BSL: blood sugar level
BX: biopsy or Blue Cross

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CABG: coronary artery bypass graft (surgery that creates new routes around blocked arteries to allow sufficient blood flow to the heart)
CO: cardiac output... carbon monoxide... or coinsurance
CHF: congestive heart failure
CLD: chronic liver disease
CPAP: continuous (constant) positive airway pressure (a method of treating sleep apnea by blowing air into the nostrils)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DM: diabetes mellitus... disease management... or diastolic murmur (type of heart murmur)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

F/C: fever and chills
FOB: fecal occult blood (a possible sign of colon cancer)... fiberoptic bronchoscopy (diagnostic procedure in which a lighted instrument is inserted into the lung)... or foot of bed
FROM: full range of motion
FUO: fever of undetermined origin
FWB: full weight-bearing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GIT: gastrointestinal tract

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HEP: home exercise program
HTN: hypertension
HUM: heat, ultrasound, massage
HYPN: hypertension

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I & D: incision and drainage
IBS: irritable bowel syndrome
IND: Investigational New Drug
ITT: insulin tolerance test

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

LBM: last bowel movement or lean body mass
LSW: left-sided weakness
LVAD: left ventricular assist device (a machine that helps the heart pump)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OA: osteoarthritis... old age... or occiput anterior (birth position)
OBS: organic brain syndrome (dementia)
O & C: onset and course

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PCO: patient complains of
PH: past history or pulmonary hypertension
PMI: past medical illness... patient medication instruction... point of maximum impulse... or point of maximum intensity
PTA: post-traumatic amnesia... physical therapy assistant... plasma thromboplastin antecedent (a component of blood)... or prior to admission
PuD: pulmonary disease
PVD: peripheral vascular disease

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RA: rheumatoid arthritis or right atrium (one of the four heart chambers, also called the right auricle)
R/O: rule out
RSW: right-sided weakness

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

TET: treadmill exercise test
TFA: total fatty acids
TURP: transurethral resection of the prostate (a surgical procedure to treat BPH)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VDA: venous digital angiogram (computer-assisted examination of a vein or veins) or visual discriminatory acuity (an eye exam)
VDH: valvular disease of the heart

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WA: when awake
WBS: whole-body scan
WH: well-healed or well-hydrated

Common abbreviations found on prescriptions?…

ac: before meals
bid: twice a day
daw: dispense as written
hs: at bedtime
ou: both eyes
po: by mouth
prn: as needed
qd: every day
qh: every hour
qid: four times a day
tid: three times a day


First Printed: May 1, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Bottom Line/Health interviewed Marilyn Fuller Delong, RN, a Los Angeles area-based nurse consultant specializing in discharge planning and case management. She is the author of Medical Acronyms, Eponyms & Abbreviations (Practice Management Information Corporation).