(I\u2019m convinced we remain the #1 utilizers of beta glucan testing in the world, for better and for worse. The low-risk case with the barely positive beta glucan triggers a spectacular number of unnecessary ID consults.)<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019m back with a similar topic, only this time with an ID-specialty focus. My inspiration this time wasn\u2019t the inpatient medical service, but an email a colleague wrote that truly stretched the limitations of my acronym knowledge. I found myself re-reading several sentences, wondering \u201chuh?\u201d and \u201cwhat the \u2026?\u201d multiple times, not able to decipher their meaning even within the context of the email.<\/p>\n
RCTs on provision of SUD tx with PrEP and ART like MHUs and PNs\u00a0 — RCT just completed NIDA funded, CROI abstract to come … also LAI PrEP and ART plus SUD tx to PWUD …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So here\u2019s the challenge: I\u2019ve listed a bunch of ID-related acronyms below and made brief comments that sometimes are hints \u2014 and other times are just the first thing that popped into my head. You, the wise readers, will offer your suggestions about what they mean. Some should be easy, some might be truly head-scratchers, but that’s part of the fun.<\/p>\n
Have at it.<\/p>\n
IGRA<\/strong> — frequently ordered, almost as frequently misinterpreted<\/p>\nPWID<\/strong> — very similar to PWUD, but somehow different enough to justify a separate acronym<\/p>\nBSI<\/strong> — not to be confused with BSA<\/p>\nCLABSI<\/strong> — BSI, but now with administrative consequences<\/p>\nCRBSI<\/strong> — similar to CLABSI, but until recently, I hadn’t heard this one so including it here<\/p>\nDILI<\/strong> — sounds cute; very much not<\/p>\nVRE<\/strong> — a three-letter word that can force you stop citalopram<\/p>\nCRE<\/strong> — looks like VRE, behaves worse<\/p>\nCPE<\/strong> — related to CRE, but more specific<\/p>\nESBL <\/strong>— aspires to be pronounced as a word like MRSA instead of letter-by-letter, which it always is<\/p>\nPSSA<\/strong> — say this one it as it’s written and you too can sound like you’re from South Boston<\/p>\nLAI <\/strong>—\u00a0add it to your coffee in the morning<\/p>\nMDR<\/strong> — vague, ominous, and highly contextual<\/p>\nXDR<\/strong> — MDR, but worse<\/em><\/p>\nRIPE<\/strong> — not for XDR<\/p>\nBCx<\/strong> — the lowercase “x” at the end is different from the X in XDR, and stands for … nothing, though UCx uses it too<\/p>\nPDR<\/strong> — RRRRRR<\/em>, or “pirate bacteria”<\/p>\nSUD<\/strong> — encompasses OUD, AUD, and StUD — and you know what those are, right?<\/p>\nTDM<\/strong> — sounds straightforward until you need to interpret and act on the results<\/p>\nEHE<\/strong> — bold vision, weird acronym<\/p>\nIRIS<\/strong> — pretty name, not so pretty to manage<\/p>\nLTBI<\/strong> — may need RIPE “lite,” and importantly non-infectious<\/p>\nPsA<\/strong> — no one can explain why the third letter is capitalized<\/p>\nbNAbs<\/strong> — another one with inscrutable capitalization rules — I mean, why not BNAbs?<\/p>\nTOC<\/strong> — beware lingering molecules of dead bugs!<\/p>\nOPAT<\/strong> — does not refer to Irish people named “Patrick”<\/p>\nEOT<\/strong> — you’ll suffer if you don’t specify this for your OPAT patients, those named Patrick or otherwise<\/p>\nAYALHIV<\/strong> — well, I know what the last three letters stand for<\/p>\nOf course, abbreviations and acronyms exist for a reason — they save time, space, and keystrokes, and they let us sound efficient while we\u2019re still figuring things out. But when they pile up unchecked, they turn even a straightforward clinical discussion into something that feels like a badly encrypted message, or that 6-character jumble (the confirmation code) that you get with every flight. People are well within their rights to say, on hearing a new one, what does that mean<\/em>?<\/p>\nBefore wrapping up, here\u2019s one of the more absurd abbreviation sagas in modern medical history. For years, we\u2019ve been required to check off \u201cGC modifier\u201d on every patient we see with a trainee in order to get credit for their documentation. Fine.<\/p>\n
But no one — and I mean no one — knows what \u201cGC\u201d actually stands for. Not physicians. Not coders. Not compliance officers. It exists solely as two letters that must be clicked, lest the visit somehow not count. Which may be the purest example of an acronym achieving total bureaucratic independence from meaning \u2014 and a fitting way to end a discussion about how shorthand, once created, takes on a life of its own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Motivated by an attending stint on the general medical service, I once wrote a post here called, \u201cMystifying Abbreviations on Medical Rounds.\u201d It proved to be quite popular, so I\u2019m pleased to inform you that saying \u201cRUQUS\u201d (right upper quality ultrasound) and \u201cG and G\u201d (glucan and galactomannan) have truly entered the vernacular, especially here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/hiv-id-observations\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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