Medical Abbreviations: 300 You Will See on a Chart
The dangerous abbreviations are not the rare ones. They are the pairs that look alike.
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| Front | Back |
|---|---|
| NPO — what does it stand for and mean? | Nil per os. Nothing by mouth, including food, fluids and oral medicines. An order that must state whether medicines are also withheld. |
| BRP — what does it stand for and mean? | Bathroom privileges. The patient may get up to use the bathroom. More restrictive than up as tolerated and less than complete bed rest. |
| VS — what does it stand for and mean? | Vital signs. The set of basic physiological measurements recorded at each assessment. The set recorded varies by setting, so the individual values must be checked. |
| HPI — what does it stand for and mean? | History of present illness. The narrative account of the current problem. Different from the past medical history, which covers earlier conditions. |
| PE — what does it stand for and mean? | Physical examination. The clinician's structured examination of the patient. Also stands for pulmonary embolism, and the section of the note decides which is meant. |
| NPI — what does it stand for and mean? | Numeric pain intensity. A pain score reported by the patient on a numerical scale. The scale used must be stated, since scales differ in range. |
| SOB — what does it stand for and mean? | Shortness of breath. The subjective sensation of difficulty breathing. Different from an abnormal respiratory rate, which is an observed sign. |
| ABG — what does it stand for and mean? | Arterial blood gas. A sample measuring oxygen, carbon dioxide and acid-base status. Different from a venous sample, which cannot assess oxygenation the same way. |
| PT — what does it stand for and mean? | Prothrombin time. A test of one arm of the clotting cascade. Reported with the international normalised ratio for comparability. |
| UA — what does it stand for and mean? | Urinalysis. A set of tests on a urine sample. Also used for uric acid, so the context of the request matters. |
| C and S — what does it stand for and mean? | Culture and sensitivity. Growing an organism and testing which agents inhibit it. Sensitivity results take longer than the culture itself. |
| CXR — what does it stand for and mean? | Chest radiograph. An X-ray image of the chest. The view taken affects interpretation, so it is recorded with the result. |
| ECG — what does it stand for and mean? | Electrocardiogram. A recording of the electrical activity of the heart. Also abbreviated EKG, and both refer to the same test. |
| PFT — what does it stand for and mean? | Pulmonary function tests. A set of tests measuring lung volumes and airflow. Results depend on patient effort, so poor technique invalidates them. |
| MI — what does it stand for and mean? | Myocardial infarction. Death of heart muscle from interrupted blood supply. Confused with mitral insufficiency in older notes. |
| AS in cardiology — what does it stand for and mean? | Aortic stenosis. Narrowing of the aortic valve. The same letters mean left ear in prescriptions, which is unrelated. |
| AF — what does it stand for and mean? | Atrial fibrillation. An irregular rhythm arising from disorganised atrial activity. Confused with atrial flutter, which is regular and has a different pattern. |
| CABG — what does it stand for and mean? | Coronary artery bypass graft. Surgery creating a new route around a blocked coronary artery. Different from angioplasty, which opens the existing vessel. |
| DVT — what does it stand for and mean? | Deep vein thrombosis. A blood clot in a deep vein, usually of the leg. Different from superficial thrombophlebitis, which affects surface veins. |
| COPD — what does it stand for and mean? | Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Persistent airflow limitation, usually from long-term exposure to irritants. Different from asthma, in which obstruction is largely reversible. |
| ETT — what does it stand for and mean? | Endotracheal tube. A tube placed in the trachea to secure the airway. Different from a tracheostomy tube, which enters through the neck. |
| NC — what does it stand for and mean? | Nasal cannula. A device delivering oxygen through short prongs in the nostrils. It delivers a variable concentration that depends on the patient's own breathing. |
| CPAP — what does it stand for and mean? | Continuous positive airway pressure. Constant pressure applied throughout the breathing cycle. Different from bilevel support, which uses two pressure levels. |
| GI — what does it stand for and mean? | Gastrointestinal. Relating to the digestive tract. Upper and lower tract problems present differently, so the region should be stated. |
| ARF — what does it stand for and mean? | Acute renal failure. A rapid decline in kidney function. Now more often written as acute kidney injury, which has defined criteria. |
| DM — what does it stand for and mean? | Diabetes mellitus. A disorder of glucose regulation. Distinct from diabetes insipidus, which concerns water balance. |
| Fx — what does it stand for and mean? | Fracture. A break in a bone. Confused with the abbreviation for family history in handwritten notes. |
| OB — what does it stand for and mean? | Obstetrics. The care of pregnancy and childbirth. Also written for occult blood in laboratory notes. |
| NICU — what does it stand for and mean? | Neonatal intensive care unit. A unit caring for critically ill newborns. Different from the paediatric intensive care unit, which cares for older children. |
| itis — what does it stand for and mean? | Inflammation. A suffix naming inflammation of a structure. Inflammation is not always infection, so the two should not be equated. |
About this deck
QD and QID differ by one letter and by three doses a day. MS means multiple sclerosis in a neurology note and something quite different on a medication list, which is why it sits on do-not-use lists. Charts are full of shorthand that is unambiguous to the person who wrote it and ambiguous to everyone else, and learning the pairs is more useful than learning the list. This deck is 300 cards, one abbreviation per card, written the way it appears on a chart. The back gives the words the letters stand for and what it refers to in practice, then, where it applies, a line on the abbreviation it is confused with, or a note that it appears on a do-not-use list. The sections cover orders and routes, assessment and vital signs, laboratory and diagnostics, cardiovascular and respiratory, body systems and conditions, and word roots, prefixes and suffixes. No dose, rate or laboratory cut-off appears anywhere, because those depend on the patient and the local protocol and have no business being memorised from a card. Once the deck is on a spaced-repetition schedule, the abbreviations you read fluently stop coming back and the confusable pairs return until they stop being a hesitation.
Frequently asked
- What is in each section of the deck?
- Orders and routes has 50 cards, assessment and vital signs 45, laboratory and diagnostics 55, cardiovascular and respiratory 55, body systems and conditions 55, and word roots, prefixes and suffixes 40, for 300 in total. Every card carries section and subtopic tags, so you can drill one area at a time.
- Why are do-not-use abbreviations included?
- Because you will still encounter them in older records and in handwriting, and recognising one is different from writing one. Where an abbreviation appears on such a list, the third line says so, so the card teaches you to read it without teaching you to use it.
- Are any values or doses included?
- None. No dose, no infusion rate and no laboratory reference range appears anywhere in the deck. Those vary by patient, by institution and over time, and looking them up in the current source is the correct habit. The deck covers what the letters mean and nothing more.
- Can I import the whole deck on the free plan?
- Yes. Importing a saved deck runs no new AI generation and does not use your AI allowance, so the free plan imports all 300 cards. You can study, edit and delete them afterwards.
- Will importing it twice create duplicates?
- No. Cards you already have are skipped and only cards added in a revision come through. Including re-imports after deleting it, one official deck can be imported three times per account.
- Can I use it on the web and in the mobile app?
- Yes. The deck is added to your account rather than to a device, so the same cards and the same progress are there on the web, on iOS and on Android.
- Can I edit the cards after importing?
- Yes. Imported cards are yours: you can edit both sides, delete cards you do not need, change tags, and move cards to another deck.
No official exam questions are reproduced. Every card was written for this deck.The deck is a study aid for exam knowledge. It is not medical advice, and it gives no doses.Editorial reference date 2026-08-31.