Some Common PCR and Medical Abbreviations

Some common PCR and medical abbreviations:

A/A / Above Address
AAA / Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm
AAL / Anterior Axillary Line
Abdo / Abdominal
ABG / Arterial Blood Gas
ACF / Anterior Cubital Fossa
ACL / Anterior Clavicular Line
ACS / Acute Coronary Syndrome
(A)MI / (Acute) Myocardial Infarction
ACF / Ante(rior) Cubital Fossa (the front of the elbow, a common canulation site)
ACS / Acute Coronary Syndrome
APH / Ante Partum Haemorrhage
a/s / at scene
BBA / (Baby) Born Before Arrival
BBB / Bundle Branch Block
BID / Brought in Dead (most A&E depts have a BID room, where the deceased are laid out before being taken to the mortuary)
BP / Blood Pressure
BPd / Blood Pressure diastolic
BPs / Blood Pressure systolic
BpM / Breaths or (heart) beats per Minute
BO / Bowels opened (BNO = Not opened; BOR = opened Regularly)
BS / Bowel Sounds
CA/Ca / Carcinoma/Cancer
CABG / Coronary Artery Bypass Graft
CCF / Congestive Cardiac Failure
CCP / Central Chest Pain
CCU / Coronary Care Unit
CHD / Coronary Heart Disease
CNS / Central Nervous System
c/o / Complains Of
COPD / Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (sometimes COAD, where the A stands for Airways)
CP / Chest Pain
Crash/Crash Call / Cardiac Arrest. The Crash Call is put out to call the resuscitation team to a patient who has arrested, either in hospital or who is en route to hospital
CRT / Capillary Refill Time
CVA/E / Cerebro Vascular Accident/Episode (current preference is for “Stroke”)
C spine / Cervical Spine
Cx / Cervical (usually spine)
DiB / Difficulty in Breathing
D&V / Diarrhoea and Vomiting
DKA / Diabetic Ketoacidosis
DN(A)R / Do Not (Attempt to) Resuscitate
DOA / Dead on Arrival
DOE / Dyspnoea on Exertion
DSH / Deliberate Self Harm
DVT / Deep Vein Thrombosis
Dx / Diagnosis
ED / Emergency Department (A&E depts should all be changing their names to ED)
EDD / Estimated Date of Delivery of a baby (sometimes Estimated Due Date)
EMD / Electro-Mechanical Dissociation (more commonly, and see, PEA)
EP / Epilepsy/Epileptic
FHx / Family History
FROM / Full Range of Movement
FTND / Full Term Normal Delivery
GI / Gastrointestinal
GSW / Gunshot Wound
H/A / Home Address
Hb / Haemoglobin
HI / Head Injury
HPC / History of Presenting Complaint
HR / Heart Rate
HS / Heart Sounds
Hx / History
ICP / Intra-Cranial Pressure (preceded by a ↑ indicates raised ICP)
IDD/NIDD / Insulin Dependent Diabetes/Non-Insulin Dependent Diabetes
IM / Intramuscular
INR / International Normalised Ratio
IV/IVA / Intravenous/Intravenous Access
Ix / Investigations
JVP / Jugular Venous Pressure
K.O. / Knocked Out (preceded by a superscript “o” indicates not having been knocked out, i.e. ºK.O.)
L/RIF / Left/Right Iliac Fossa
LMP / Last Menstrual Period
LOC / Level of Consciousness (preceded by a superscript “o” indicates no loss of consciousness i.e. ºLOC.)
Lac / Laceration (as in “scalp lac”)
LFT / Liver Function Test
LIF / Left Iliac Fossa
LLQ/RLQ / Left (or Right) Lower Quadrant (of abdomen)
LMP / Last Menstrual Period
LRTI / Lower Respiratory Tract Infection
L/S / Left Scene
LUQ/RUQ / Left (or Right) Upper Quadrant (of abdomen)
MI / Myocardial Infarction
MRI / Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRSA / Methicillin (-or Multiple-) Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
MSCx4 / Motor/Sensory/Circulation in all four limbs. Having assessed the patient and found that the patient can move and feel, and has a distal pulse in, all four limbs
N/A / Not Applicable
NAD / No Abnormality Detected, i.e. normal
NBI / No Bone Injury
NICU / Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
NK(D)A / No Known (Drug) Allergies
NFA / No Fixed Abode
N&V / Nausea and Vomiting
NoF / Neck of Femur (as in # NoF)
NSA / No Significant Abnormality
NSR / Normal Sinus Rhythm
o/a / On Arrival
OD / Overdose
o/e / On Examination
Palp / Palpated, On Palpation
PE / Pulmonary Embolism
PEA / Pulseless Electrical Activity
PEARL/
PEARRL / Pupils Equal and React to Light/Pupils Equal and Round, React to Light
PHT / Pre-Hospital Thrombolysis
PICU / Paediatric Intensive Care Unit
PMH or PMHx / Past Medical History
pPCI / primary Percutaneous Coronary Intervention
PPH / Post-Partum haemorrhage
P/S / Pain Score
PT/Pt / Patient
PR / Per Rectum / Usually used to describe which orifice blood is being lost through, as in “bleeding PR”
PU / Per Urethra
PV / Per Vagina
PVD / Peripheral Vascular Disease
PUO / Pyrexia of Unknown Origin
(R)/(L) / Right/Left (often the R or L is completely encircled, as ®)
ROM / Range of Movement
ROLE / Recognition of Life Extinct
ROSC(/R) / Return of Spontaneous Circulation (/Respiration)
Rose / Ivy Cottage / Old fashioned (but still used) euphemism for the mortuary
RR / Respiratory Rate
RTC(/A) / Road Traffic Collision (although sometimes referred to as RTA, where the “A” stands for Accident)
RTI / Respiratory Tract Infection (URTI = Upper; LRTI = Lower)
Rx / Treatment or Prescription
s/c or subcut / Subcutaneous, usually of injection
SCBU / Special Care Baby Unit
SOB (OE) / Shortness of Breath/Short of Breath (On Exertion)
SHx / Social History
SpO2 / Saturation percentage of Oxygen
Stat / Immediately, Straight Away
STEMI / ST Elevation MI
SVT / Supra Ventricular Tachycardia
Sx / Symptoms
TIA / Transient Ischaemic Attack
THR/TKR / Total Hip (or Knee) Replacement
TLC / Tender Loving Care (often used when a patient is receiving palliative care only)
TOP / Termination of Pregnancy
UTI / Urinary Tract Infection
VT / Ventricular Tachycardia
Wt / Weight

Symbols

-ve / Negative
+ve / Positive
á / Raised/Increased/Above
â / Lowered/Reduced/Below
?/24 / Number of Hours
?/7 / Number of Days
?/52 / Number of Weeks
?/40 / Number of weeks gestation
# / Fracture
Δ / Diagnosis (preceded by a ? indicates a possible or tentative diagnosis, and preceded by a ?? or ??? usually suggests an educated or complete guess)
More Than
Less Than
+ / ++ / +++ / Present / significant / excessive (often used to describe how much alcohol has been consumed, or blood lost)
Acopic/
Acopia / Describes a patient who is not coping well at home
Collapse ? Cause / Describes a collapsed patient where there is no obvious cause for the collapse
Mortuary / Not “morgue”. We’re not American. Yet.
Pulseless, apnoeic, pupils fixed and dilated / Describes a patient who is, to all intents and purposes, DOA.

Some prescription abbreviations:

ac / Before food
ad / As Directed
bd / Twice daily
cc / With food
CD / Controlled Drug
mane/om / In the morning
nocte/on / At night
od / Once daily
OTC / Over The Counter
po / per orim (by mouth
POM / Prescription Only Medicine
prn / As Required
qds / Four times daily
tds / Three times daily