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Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Medical Abbreviations in Malaysia

After four weeks doing elective in Malaysia, these are some of the common medical abbreviations used in the hospital.

AFNT – Anterior Fontanelle NormoTensive
AGE – Acute Gastro Enteritis
ARF – Acute Renal Failure
BE – Base Excess
CBD – Continuous Bladder Drainage (Fancy phrase of saying putting up a urinary catheter)
CBS – Capillary Blood Sugar
CKD – Chronic Kidney Disease
CLD – Chronic Liver Disease
DFU – Diabetic Foot Ulcers
DIL – Death In Line
DRNM – Dual Rhythm No Murmur (This is used to describe cardiovascular examination findings)
EES - Erythromycin ethyl succinate
EMCS – Emergency Caesarean Section
FTSVD – Full Term Spontaneous Vaginal Delivery
JE – Japanese Encephalitis [PDF]
KIV – Keep In View
NNJ – Neonatal Jaundice
OA – Orang Asli
PCM – Paracetamol
PD – Peritoneal Dialysis
SCR – Subcostal Recession
SGOT - Serum Glutamic Oxaloacetic Transaminase. Another name for AST (Aspartate aminotransferase)
TCA – To Come Again. Example TCA eye clinic 6/52
TRO – To Rule Out
UFEME – Urine Full Examination Microscopic Examination
UGIB - Upper Gastrointestinal Bleeding

p/s: Most of these abbreviations are quite different from the one we used in Australia.

18 comments:

أم الليث said...

hehehe. tak guna BSL??? huuuuu.

my uncle who trained in the UK got called 'stupid and useless' during an interview for internship because he didn't know what SGOT was. sabar je la kan.

i tak tahan nak gelak coz siap ada abbreviation utk orang asli!! OC= orang cina, OM = orang melayu takdek?

at least ARF, KIV, NNJ, PCM are the same. u forgot CBC, the FBC/FBE of malaysia

Hafiz said...

yup, mereka tak guna BSL.

Every country has different medical abbreviations. I guess Malaysian consultants/specialist need to consider that when they see any oversea-trained medical graduates.

M=Malay, C=Cina, I=India

Kat Malaysia, setiap kali tulis medical report, kena state race. I don't know what is the reason behind this.

Yes, forgot about FBC :) thanks for reminding me

Anonymous said...

Believe me, once you start your housemanship in Malaysia it is vital for you to keep a small notebook with all the lists of abbreviations they use around here. I spent my first one or two months here blinking in confusion whenever I hear some abbreviations spewed back and forth by the other docs. To save face I have to ask another HO about what in the world they are talking about. Now this is happening lesser and lesser, but still sometimes there are new abbreviations you encounter which you'll have to commit to memory.

nhhas said...

kejam betul korang ni. kutuk negara sendiri eh. ishishish...
btw, CKD tu kalau untuk manufacturing = Complete Knocked Down :)....

Hafiz said...

@ Adz Ariff,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I will keep your suggestion in mind when I'm going to work next year.

@ nihas,

How often you changed your username eh ;)

Ni bukan mengutuk negara sendiri lah, lebih kepada menunjukkan perbezaan sistem perubatan Malaysia dan Australia :)

nhhas said...

tukar blog title = 1X
tukar name = 1X

not so often la doc... :)
n bukan krisis identiti juga yer :)

p/s: saya kanak2 baru belajar. :)

Hafiz said...

@ nihas, takper, yang penting kena selesa dengan username yer :)

Allison said...

i thought UFEME stands for urine full examination microscopic elements?

Thanks for sharing. :)

Hafiz said...

@ Allison, I could be wrong. After all, these are abbreviations used in Malaysia that are not familiar with me. Thanks for leaving a comment here.

A Passerby said...

RTA = Road Traffic Accident ? ;)

Hafiz said...

We use MVA (Motor Vehicle Accident). Thanks for the note.

ihsan_huhu said...

ala lame2 tuh bese r, budak2 kat russia pkai shortform bahase pe r?

Hafiz said...

I studied at Melbourne. Melbourne guna abbreviation yang berlainan sedikit dari Malaysia. Apa khabar yer Ihsan, lama tak dengar cerita?

Anonymous said...

Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!

Anonymous said...

they ask us to state race for some reasons. based on epidemiology study, chinese lagi prone kene penyakit kanser nasopharynx, bcos of their genetic n stail pemakanan diorang.

and etc.

:)

Anonymous said...

PTB: pulmonary TB
i study in the UK and I did my elective in malaysia

i spent 4 weeks of my elective thinking it meant post traumatic bleed

i did think it was weird how everyone with chest symptoms seem to have PTB as a differential, but never thought it to mean anything else!!

nadwaqeela said...

thank you for the abbs. i'm currently doing my 3rd year in HUKM and was struggling with all sorts of abbreviations and shortforms.

came here upon acrossing DRNM. was wondering about it till now. hehe

missnaims said...

Drnm - if it is in cvs exam part, then it is double rhythm no murmur