PERIPHERALIA

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The world is now flooded with acronyms and none more 
so than the world of modern medicine. Acronyms are 
abbreviations formed from the initial letters of a word or 
phrase and in medicine are mostly used for disease names 
(MS, MI, etc.) as well as for drugs (ARVs, CCBs, etc.) and 
investigations (MRI, LP, etc.). 

I now find that on reading a paper in a medical journal, I 
come across at least two or more acronyms that I am unable 
to decipher. I then retrace my steps to somewhere at the 
beginning of the paper where the object of my desire is 
written in full (for the first and only time) followed by its 
acronymic letters, written, almost secretively, in brackets 
after it.

I have recently come across a treasure trove of acronyms in 
circulars written as guidelines  for  working in the primary 
health care clinics.  They are part of the Minister of Health’s 
National Health Insurance Initiative (hereinafter referred to 
as the MOH’s NHII).  My knowledge of Human Immuno Viral 
Medicine needed updating, so I was given the South African 
Antiretroviral Treatment Guidelines for 2013 and I applaud 
the authors for putting this subject in the most succinct and 
readable form possible.

The subject lends itself to an acronymic extravaganza.  The 
authors have not explained or defined them because, firstly, 
they are now mostly common currency and, secondly, 
I suspect that they were exhausted after the effort of 
correlating such a complex nomenclature.

On your behalf, I have recorded in my best obsessive and 
compulsive way the acronyms in this document, which are: 

PMTCT, HIV, BANC, SRH, CCMT, TB, OI, ANC, MTCT, IMCI, DNA-
PCR, EPI, HCT, ARV, ART, LBW, INH, CTX, CD4, PICT, WHO, FDC, 
TDF, FTC, 3TC, EFV, AZT, Hb, RPR, NVP, LPV, RTV, ABC, D4T, BF, 

PCP, NIMART, RTHB, CHW, DOH, HAART, Rh, STI, TST, IRIS, IPT, 
FeSO

4, 
FBC, MCV, WCC, EG, BCG, VL, DLY, NGT, ALT, ASAP, IMCI, 

IUCD, C/S, and PHC.  

It is almost a new hieroglyphic language on its own.  By 
the end of the guidelines, I believe I was approaching SSD 
(Sensory Semantic Dementia) due to PADAB (Progressive 
Acronym Disambiguation).

Once one has assimilated acronyms into one’s subconscious, 
they make the reading of an article easier and quicker, but 
new ones take some time to adapt into one’s understanding 
and may interrupt the flow of sentences.

Acronyms also have to be interpreted in the context within 
which they have been written as LBW can stand for Low Birth 
Weight or Leg Before Wicket.  Even more care must be taken in 
medical articles as CHD can stand for Chronic Heart Disease, 
Congenital Heart Disease or Coronary Heart Disease. As you 
can imagine with drugs and laboratory investigations, the list 
of medical abbreviations is now enormous and there is now 
a Dictionary of Medical Acronyms and Abbreviations.  I have, 
from time to time, come across some informal acronyms 
in the notes that have usually been recorded by frustrated 
doctors, such as ETKTM for the patient who has had Every 
Test Known To Man.  There is also NFP, which stands for 
Normal For Pietermaritzburg as well as FOS, which stands, of 
course,  for Full Of…Stool.

In a complex informational world acronyms are here to stay, 
but we need to find some way of controlling them as they 
are replicating as rapidly as bacteria, and please remember 
to RSVP to this article and do it ASAP, OK?

Chris Ellis is a GP in PMB, in KZN, RSA.

Email: cristobalellis@gmail.com

 An Acronymic Wilderness