- Concept
uses the term "laser", which originated as an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation"
In addition to the general naming conventions below, please also see any applicable naming conventions for specific hierarchies in their respective domain.
Generally, names should:
Naming conventions should not be based on word order preferences (e.g. to facilitate search or display). Creating multiple word order variants for these purposes is outside the scope of the International Release of SNOMED CT.
SNOMED CT relies on the rules for usefulness to avoid excessive pre-coordination (see Scope). Approved pre-coordination naming patterns have been created and are available at Pre-coordination Naming Patterns Project. |
Descriptions should not include articles such as a, an, and the. There are legacy descriptions that contain articles such as the that will be corrected over time.
For example,
Abbreviations are shortened forms of words or phrases. An acronym is a specific type of abbreviation formed from the initial letters of words and is sometimes pronounced as a word (e.g. AIDS for Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; NICU for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). Neither abbreviation nor acronym is permitted in a fully specified name (FSN).
For example,
Abbreviations and acronyms are allowed in a preferred term or synonym when followed by the term expansion. If the abbreviation or acronym stands alone (meaning, no additional terms are included; the letters represent the entire meaning of the description without any other text), it is followed by a space, a hyphen, and another space, then the expanded term. The first word after the dash should be lower case as per usual capitalization rules.
For example,
If the abbreviation or acronym forms only part of the description's meaning, it is followed by a space, then the expanded term in parentheses. The first word in the parentheses should be lower case as per usual capitalization rules.
For example,
140031000119103 |Acute nontraumatic kidney injury (disorder)| has a synonym of Nontraumatic AKI (acute kidney injury)
Official names of organism, which is represented as organism preferred term, may include abbreviations. The abbreviations do not need to be accompanied by the fully expanded term.
Abbreviated organism part names are allowed in a preferred term (and other synonyms). The abbreviations do not need to be accompanied by the fully expanded term
The preferred term for allergen components in the Substance hierarchy follows the rules established by the World Health Organization/ International Union of Immunological Societies Nomenclature Sub Committee: allergen names consist of the first three letters from the genus, one letter from the species epithet, followed by an Arabic numeral. e.g. 1157148000 |Arachis hypogaea 2 protein (substance)| has a preferred term of "Ara h 2".
An acronym is allowed in an FSN when it has become a word in its own right, i.e. included in dictionaries; understood without expansion to its original full form.
For example,
The preferred term for imaging procedures involving imaging modalities commonly referred to by an acronym (such as CT, MRI, SPECT, PET) omits the expanded term after the acronym.
For example,
Acronyms in rare and genetic diseases have been included for the concepts as part of the Orphanet project that do not include expansion of the abbreviation, as some of the diseases are commonly known by the acronym.
For example,
GLOW syndrome is a synonym of 782722002 |Global developmental delay, lung cysts, overgrowth, Wilms tumor syndrome (disorder)|. Although the FSN and other descriptions have full expansions, there is a description included for |GLOW syndrome|, which does not further delineate the GLOW acronym.
Second example,
BRESEK syndrome is a synonym of 717945001 |Brain anomaly, severe mental retardation, ectodermal dysplasia, skeletal deformity, ear anomaly, kidney dysplasia syndrome (disorder)|. Although the FSN and other descriptions have full expansions, there is a description included for |BRESEK syndrome|, which does not further delineate the BRESEK acronym.
Based on recommendation by the International Protein Nomenclature Guidelines, an abbreviation may be part of a protein name:
Msh6 in "DNA mismatch repair protein Msh6 (substance)" is a protein symbol standing for "mutS homolog 6" protein. Gene and Protein symbols are short identifiers, typically 3 to 8 characters, that are usually created by contraction or acronymic abbreviation. They are pseudo-acronyms, in the sense that they are complete identifiers or short names. They are considered synonymous with (rather than standing for) the gene/protein name (or any of its aliases), regardless of whether the initial letters "match". Gene and protein symbols maybe part of protein name:
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Eponyms are names that are derived from proper names (usually the person who made the discovery or created the original description). It is neither desirable nor possible, to completely avoid using eponyms in a medical terminology. They are found in many areas of medical terminology, including anatomic structures, morphologic abnormalities, diseases, findings, and procedures (e.g. Rutherford Morison's pouch, vein of Galen, Aschoff body, Kell blood group, Down syndrome, Moro reflex, and Whipple procedure).
Fully specified names (FSN) should be full descriptions, whereas synonyms may be eponymous terms.
For example,
Eponymous descriptions should not include an apostrophe or final s, unless the name normally ends in s.
For example,
When common usage requires it, there should be at least one description that has the apostrophe s. For descriptions with a possessive apostrophe where the name normally ends in s, the apostrophe should follow the s.
For example,
It is permitted and encouraged to include eponyms as descriptions (non-FSN descriptions) whenever they are understandable, reproducible, and useful in a given context.
Exceptions require careful consideration since eponyms meanings may change over time. They are allowed when:
When constructing an FSN, the preposition 'of' is preferred over using the preposition 'in' to describe the morphology of an anatomic structure.
For example,
When creating the descriptions for a concept (e.g. a disorder concept) that name an entity such as a body structure, substance or organism, the conventions that are applied for naming the entity in the source hierarchy should be used.
For example,
This concept references the organism hierarchy in the causative agent of 52499004 |Pseudomonas aeruginosa (organism)| and uses that description in the FSN.
448169003 |Felis catus (organism)| has a preferred term of “Domestic cat”. As a result a related concept in the Substance hierarchy, 143491000146106 |Felis catus protein (substance)| has a preferred term of “Domestic cat protein”.
This concept references the body structure hierarchy in the finding site of |Structure of left upper eyelid (body structure)| and uses "left upper eyelid" in the FSN.
This concept references the body structure hierarchy in the finding site of 89837001 |Urinary bladder structure (body structure)| and uses "urinary bladder" in the FSN and PT.
The term bladder must be include urinary to distinguish from gallbladder in order to aid in translation. Urinary bladder must be used in both the fully specified name and preferred term. |
The descriptions should be context neutral for these foundation hierarchies. Where context is explicit for a disease or procedure, the preferred term from foundation hierarchies can be used instead. For example, procedure CT of abdomen indicates that the context of CT imaging is cross-sectional. The procedure site should be modeled with the cross-sectional abdomen. However, it is not necessary to change 'Computed tomography of abdomen (procedure)' to 'Computed tomography of cross-sectional abdomen (procedure)'. It is the same reason for the preferred term 'CT of abdomen'.
Outside of the body structure hierarchy, concepts should not include the words structure or structure of in the concept descriptions. For example,
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In the rare event that the 255-character limit of the fully specified name is reached, standard naming conventions may be circumvented in order to adhere to the 255-term string limit.
For example, the use of commas may be used instead of the word “and”.
Considerations can include language nuances, content use case, etc. The decision on which standard naming conventions to circumvent will depend on the circumstances.