Overview

A description may be added created in an extension as part of the process of adding a new concept, or for adding translations and a translation or alternative synonyms to an existing concept(s). Recall that all concepts must have at least two descriptions, one fully specified name and at least one synonym. Many concepts have multiple synonyms to provide additional terms for a given clinical idea. The topic of language or dialect-specific term preferences is explored in the 4.3.2.4.1 Language Reference Set section.

Descriptions in an extension follow the same logical design as descriptions in the International Edition. They are distributed in a description file.

. Extension descriptions are distributed in a description file, which follows the standard RF2 release file format. For more details on the principles and processes for authoring descriptions in an extension, please refer to 5.4.3 Authoring Descriptions.

Attributes

In addition to the four common attributes, descriptions use five specific attributesalso have a conceptId, languageCode, typeId, term and caseSignificanceId.

conceptId

The conceptId attribute conceptId uses the data type SCTID to link back links the description to the concept for which this description applies. In other words linking a term with a clinical idea. The value in this field that it describes. The conceptId may refer to a concept in the same extension module or to a concept in a module on which the extension module depends.

...

The languageCode is a two-character string, which specifies the language of the description using the ISO 639-1 standard (e.g. 'EN', 'ES'). Please note that the languageCode specifies only specifies the description’s language, such as language of the description (e.g. English or Spanish, ) and does not indicate the dialect , such as (e.g. US English or GB English). Dialect preferences are represented by language reference sets. Extensions may use a languageCode not used by the International Edition.

...

The typeId is a SCTID that specifies the type of the description. The value of this attribute always refers to must be a descendant of the concept of 

term

The term attribute is a text string that describes the given concept. The term is represented using UTF-8 text string, which allows for flexibility and inclusion of characters used in non-English languagescharacter sets to be used, such as the accented letters characters used in Nordic languages. This field is used to contain a term which will be used to describe the concept, Hindi characters and Chinese characters. The maximum length of a fully specified name or synonym is defined in the 

caseSignificanceId

The caseSignificanceId attribute is a SCTID which specifies how the case of the characters in the term may be changed when using the term. The values of this attribute always refer to descendants of the concept

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In below, a row is presented from the descriptions table of the 20170901 US edition, 20170901. Note that this description is associated with the extension concept from the previous example.

Key points as followsPlease note the following:

• The namespace identifier in the description id uses a namespace identifier allocated to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) which . This indicates that this description was created by the US NRCNLM.
• The description id uses a partition identifier is “11” so we know this description originated of “11”. This indicates that the description was created in an extension.
• The moduleId indicates that this description is included in the

  Concept
  ShowParts term t 731000124108 |US National Library of Medicine maintained module|

  , which is the same module that the associated concept (from the previous example) is included in.
• The conceptId links the description to the concept

  Concept
  t 5281000124103 |Persistent asthma|

  Note that the id and the conceptId both use the a namespace identifier owned by the NLM, which . This indicates that this description is associated with a concept in created by the same extension producer.
• A languageCode of "en" indicates that this description uses the English language.
• The typeId indicates that this description is a

  Concept
  ShowParts term t 900000000000013009 |Synonym|

  .
• The term indicates that the name of this description as string "Persistent asthma" is used to describe the concept

  Concept
  ShowParts id t 5281000124103 |Persistent asthma|

  .
• The caseSignificanceId indicates the term is

  Concept
  ShowParts term t 900000000000448009 |Entire term case insensitive|

  . This means that a range of cases the term can be displayed using any alternative casing, such as "PERSISTENT ASTHMA" and "persistent asthma" are valid.

 belowIn  below, contains another a row is presented from the descriptions table of the 20170430 Canadian edition, 20170430. Note that this description is assocaited with a concept from the International Edition.

Key points as follows

Please note the following:

• The description In this case, the namespace identifier in the id uses a namespace owned by identifier allocated to Canada Health Infoway which (CHI). This indicates that this description was created by the Canadian NRCCHI.
• The description id uses a partition identifier is “11” so once again, we know this description originated of “11”. This indicates that the description was created in an extension.
• The moduleId indicates that this description is included in the

  Concept
  ShowParts term t 20611000087101 |Canada Health Infoway French module|

  .
• The conceptId links the description refers to the conceptconcept 

  Concept
  t 1475003 |Herpes labialis|

  , which is in  from the 20170131 International editionThis is a clue that this description is Edition. This indicates that this term may have been created as a language specific term for an existing international concept.
• A languageCode of "fr" indicates that this description uses the French language.
• The typeId indicates that this description is aa 

  Concept
  ShowParts term t 900000000000003001 |Fully specified name|

  .
• The term indicates that the name of this description as string "herpès labial (trouble)" Note is used to describe the concept

  Concept
  t 1475003 |Herpes labialis|

  . Please note the semantic tag, "trouble" is a French word equivalent to for "disorder".
• The caseSignificanceId indicates the term isis 

  Concept
  ShowParts term t 900000000000020002 |Only initial character case insensitive|

  . This means that only the term can be displayed as either "Herpès labial (trouble)" and or "herpès labial (trouble)" are valid.