Abbreviations serve an important time-saving function, but there seems to be an additional purpose. Abbreviations are a code, a secret and impenetrable language, the cabalistic symbols of medical society. For instance: “The PMI, corresponding to the LBCD, was located in the 5th ICS two centimeters lateral to the MCL.” Nothing could be more mysterious to an outsider than that sentence. X is the most important letter of the alphabet in medicine, because of its common use in abbreviations. Use ranges from the straightforward “Polio x3” for three polio vaccinations, to “Discharged to Ward X,” a common euphemism for the morgue. But there are many others: dx is diagnosis; px, prognosis; Rx, therapy; sx, symptoms; hx, history; mx, metastases; fx, fractures. Letter abbreviations are particularly favored in cardiology, with its endless usage of LVH, RVF, AS, MR to describe heart conditions, but other specialties have their own. On occasion, abbreviations are used to make comments which one would not want to write out in full.
