General and Medical Abbreviation Suggestions and Inspiration
The use of proper abbreviations can really speed up your note-taking process, but besides the ones you’ve grown up using, how do you discover new ones? I decided to compile a list of the ones I use, and hope you find some useful ones for yourself. These are meant to be INSPIRATION for you to develop your own system for faster note-taking: this is not a “formula” that you have to follow by any means!
Here is a list of abbreviations I always use when handwriting (and sometimes even when typing). I’ll make two lists: a general English one and medical English one. Comment your own abbreviations below and I’ll add them to the list and hopefully we can help others improve their note-taking skills.
General Abbreviations:
- a/w – associated with
- b/c – because
- b/w – between
- du2 – due to
- b/o – based on (“lab values are b/o human subjects”)
- i.e. – for example
- c/f – compared to (“arterial BP when c/f venous is much higher”)
- fx – effects (sound it out)
- m.u.o. (or muo) – ‘made up of’ and I use it for anything that is a constituent; i.e. “the scalp is muo 5 layers”
- w/ – with
- some people use C̅ to signify with
- w/o – without
- w/in – within
- v. or vv. – very (extremely)
- VIP – very important (usually followed by !!)
- Δ – change (“Δ in temp. indicates ___”)
- up/down arrows – increase, decrease (two arrows: large increase/decrease)
- + and – : positive and negative
Also, I tend to remove the end of the word and add a period to signify that it’s shortened, thus: evaluation becomes eval., component becomes comp., temperature is temp., and so on.
Some people remove all the vowels, for example: management becomes mgmnt.
Medical Abbreviations:
These are merely SUGGESTIONS and INSPIRATION for you to make your own — you absolute do not have to use these, nor will you want to. They are catered to me and my mind. As you’ll be able to see, I love using the letter ‘x,’ which is also very commonly including in medical abbreviations.
| nl anl | normal abnormal (new to me, love this one!) |
| hx h/o | history (like ‘pt hx’ means ‘patient history’) history of |
| dx Ddx | diagnosis, diagnostics differential diagnosis |
| tx | treatment, therapy, therapeutic |
| CTx | chemotherapy |
| sx asx | symptoms, symptomatic asymptomatic |
| c/o | complains of |
| mx (or mets) | metastasis/es, metastatic |
| Rx | drugs |
| Abx | antibiotics (diff than Ab, which is antibody) |
| prx | prognosis |
| sx | surgery (context is needed to differentiate from symptoms) |
| trx HTx LTx | transplant heart transplant lung transplant |
| indix CI | indication(s) contraindication(s) |
| DM1/DM2 | Type 1-2 diabetes mellitus* |
| cxc | cancer |
| plx | platelet(s) |
| VC VD | vasoconstriction vasodilation |
| CBC | complete blood count |
| SMC or VSM CT | smooth muscle (cells) or vascular smooth muscle connective tissue |
| c. or ₵ | cell |
| MPHs | macrophages |
| HTN hypoTN | hypertension hypotension |
| Failures: ARF heart failure liver failure | acute renal failure HF (congestive heart failure, CHF) hepF |
| N/V/D | nausea, vomiting, diarrhea |
| y.o. yr. | year old (59 yo m. pt) year (6 yr. h/o breast cxc) |
| pt | patient |
| ♀and ♂ | female and male, I always confuse the two (think of it like ♂represents a shield and spear) |
| SE | side effects |
| GN | glomerulonephritis (that’s a mouthful) |
| NT | neurotransmitter |
| AP syn. | action potential synapse |
| SY & PSY | sympathetic & parasympathetic |
| HS rxn | hypersensitivity reaction |
| AG ATG inhibs. | agonist antagonist inhibitors |
| BBB | blood brain barrier |
| Ag Ab | antigen antibody |
| vaxx | vaccine |
| sfc | surface (sfc R = surface receptors) |
| GIB | gastrointestinal bleeding |
My Absolute Favorite Technique
-xn for -ction ending
this one needs a little imagination and tweaking but its saved me SO much time (and wrist pain)
Examples of my FAVORITE shorthand:
reaction = rxn
function = funxn
infection = infxn
conduction = conduxn
*DM1/2: I know most people use T1DM or IDDM, but I started using these and it just stuck. And it’s faster for me.
Those are my suggestions for speeding up your already fast note-taking skills; I hope you’ve found new suggestions and ideas and if you’d like to develop other skills for note-taking, check out my other articles:
Also, take a look at my study and medical school resources:
Please feel free to suggest your own and let me expand my dictionary!
