Abbreviations and acronyms
1 April 2008
Abbreviations and acronyms are commonplace in medicine. The library holds a number of publications which list medical abbreviations but there are also useful web resources which are detailed here.
Print resources
Most of the reference books concerned with abbreviations are held at Quick Ref 7. Our most up-to-date resource is:
Stedman's medical abbreviations, acronyms & symbols 4th ed. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008.
Medical qualifications are listed at the beginning of each volume of the Medical Directory. The most recent edition is held in the library office.
The list of journals indexed in Index Medicus includes journal abbreviations indexed on Medline. It is held on the shelves beneath the journal display rack. The standard list of journal abbreviations is:
List of title word abbreviations : titles of serial and other continuing resources
ISSN Internation Centre 2003
Web resources
There are some good web sites which include medical abbreviations but they tend to have different specialisms. Additionally, since they may have a national bias, they may not be as relevant to British doctors.
MediLexicon
Claims over 200 000 abbreviations with the option to search for articles in PubMed about the subject:
http://www.medilexicon.com/
World Wide Web acronym and abbreviation finder
A site of just over 15 000 acronyms:
http://www.ucc.ie/acronyms/acro.html
Bruckmeier directory
http://www.media4u.com/abb/medical_abbreviations.htm
Centre for Postgraduate and Continuing Medical Education in Nottingham
Short but useful list of UK acronyms:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/cpcme/edu/Acronym.htm
Akronyme und Abkürzungen
A site with a chemical bias is at:
http://www.chemie.fu-berlin.de/cgi-bin/acronym.
BioABACUS
Searchable database of abbreviations and acronyms in Biotechnology. Includes name, meaning, category and where available, links to further information.
http://darwin.nmsu.edu/~molbio/bioABACUShome.htm