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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NPOStands for: Nil per os. Meaning: Nothing by mouth, including food, fluids and oral medicines. Watch for: An order that must state whether medicines are also withheld.
BRPStands for: Bathroom privileges. Meaning: The patient may get up to use the bathroom. Watch for: More restrictive than up as tolerated and less than complete bed rest.
VSStands for: Vital signs. Meaning: The set of basic physiological measurements recorded at each assessment. Watch for: The set recorded varies by setting, so the individual values must be checked.
HPIStands for: History of present illness. Meaning: The narrative account of the current problem. Watch for: Different from the past medical history, which covers earlier conditions.
PEStands for: Physical examination. Meaning: The clinician's structured examination of the patient. Watch for: Also stands for pulmonary embolism, and the section of the note decides which is meant.
NPIStands for: Numeric pain intensity. Meaning: A pain score reported by the patient on a numerical scale. Watch for: The scale used must be stated, since scales differ in range.
SOBStands for: Shortness of breath. Meaning: The subjective sensation of difficulty breathing. Watch for: Different from an abnormal respiratory rate, which is an observed sign.
ABGStands for: Arterial blood gas. Meaning: A sample measuring oxygen, carbon dioxide and acid-base status. Watch for: Different from a venous sample, which cannot assess oxygenation the same way.
PTStands for: Prothrombin time. Meaning: A test of one arm of the clotting cascade. Watch for: Reported with the international normalised ratio for comparability.
UAStands for: Urinalysis. Meaning: A set of tests on a urine sample. Watch for: Also used for uric acid, so the context of the request matters.
C and SStands for: Culture and sensitivity. Meaning: Growing an organism and testing which agents inhibit it. Watch for: Sensitivity results take longer than the culture itself.
CXRStands for: Chest radiograph. Meaning: An X-ray image of the chest. Watch for: The view taken affects interpretation, so it is recorded with the result.
ECGStands for: Electrocardiogram. Meaning: A recording of the electrical activity of the heart. Watch for: Also abbreviated EKG, and both refer to the same test.
PFTStands for: Pulmonary function tests. Meaning: A set of tests measuring lung volumes and airflow. Watch for: Results depend on patient effort, so poor technique invalidates them.
MIStands for: Myocardial infarction. Meaning: Death of heart muscle from interrupted blood supply. Watch for: Confused with mitral insufficiency in older notes.
AS in cardiologyStands for: Aortic stenosis. Meaning: Narrowing of the aortic valve. Watch for: The same letters mean left ear in prescriptions, which is unrelated.
AFStands for: Atrial fibrillation. Meaning: An irregular rhythm arising from disorganised atrial activity. Watch for: Confused with atrial flutter, which is regular and has a different pattern.
CABGStands for: Coronary artery bypass graft. Meaning: Surgery creating a new route around a blocked coronary artery. Watch for: Different from angioplasty, which opens the existing vessel.
DVTStands for: Deep vein thrombosis. Meaning: A blood clot in a deep vein, usually of the leg. Watch for: Different from superficial thrombophlebitis, which affects surface veins.
COPDStands for: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Meaning: Persistent airflow limitation, usually from long-term exposure to irritants. Watch for: Different from asthma, in which obstruction is largely reversible.
ETTStands for: Endotracheal tube. Meaning: A tube placed in the trachea to secure the airway. Watch for: Different from a tracheostomy tube, which enters through the neck.
NCStands for: Nasal cannula. Meaning: A device delivering oxygen through short prongs in the nostrils. Watch for: It delivers a variable concentration that depends on the patient's own breathing.
CPAPStands for: Continuous positive airway pressure. Meaning: Constant pressure applied throughout the breathing cycle. Watch for: Different from bilevel support, which uses two pressure levels.
GIStands for: Gastrointestinal. Meaning: Relating to the digestive tract. Watch for: Upper and lower tract problems present differently, so the region should be stated.
ARFStands for: Acute renal failure. Meaning: A rapid decline in kidney function. Watch for: Now more often written as acute kidney injury, which has defined criteria.
DMStands for: Diabetes mellitus. Meaning: A disorder of glucose regulation. Watch for: Distinct from diabetes insipidus, which concerns water balance.
FxStands for: Fracture. Meaning: A break in a bone. Watch for: Confused with the abbreviation for family history in handwritten notes.
OBStands for: Obstetrics. Meaning: The care of pregnancy and childbirth. Watch for: Also written for occult blood in laboratory notes.
NICUStands for: Neonatal intensive care unit. Meaning: A unit caring for critically ill newborns. Watch for: Different from the paediatric intensive care unit, which cares for older children.
itisStands for: Inflammation. Meaning: A suffix naming inflammation of a structure. Watch for: Inflammation is not always infection, so the two should not be equated.
このデッキについて

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 is cut into three fixed lines. "Stands for" gives the words the letters stand for. "Meaning" says in plain English what it refers to in practice. "Watch for" names the abbreviation it is confused with, or notes 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.

よくある質問

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 spends no AI credits, 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.