Doctor Shroom's Guide to Medical Bullshit.

If I can work out a way to link to this permanently on the side bar, I will, so that I can add to it.

One of my dear readers has mailed to point out there are an awful lot of three letter acronyms in my writing. I hope this will provide clarity.

Hat tip to NV who has provided almost all of these, taken ad verbatim from my comments box. Thanks.

Here I will only offer the long version of the acronym; for further info, follow the link. Many of these links may go via Wikipedia, which would cause several of my SHOs socks to blow off, were they to read this drivel....

ABG: Arterial Blood Gas; sometime referred to as 'gas' or 'gasses'
BP: Blood Pressure
CT: Computed Tomogrophy
US or USS: Ultrasound
AAA: Abdominal aortic aneurysm
TAA: Thoracic aortic aneurysm
CPR: Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation.
ECG: Electrocardiogram. EKG to my American colleagues, for some reason.
CXR: Chest X-Ray (Chest radiograph, for the pedants)
AXR: Abdominal X-Ray
DIB: Difficulty in Breathing
SOB: Short of Breath
KO'd: Knoecked Out
LOC: Loss of Consciousness
BM: Blood sugar. (no, I don't know why either)
GCS: Glasgow Coma Score
O/D: Over dose
OB/G: Obstetrics and Gynaecology (Obs and Gobs)
GYN: Gynae
ABx: Antibiotics
OD: Omni die - every day, daily. See also OM - omni mane, every morning and ON - omni nocte, every night
B(I)D: Bis (in) Die - twice daily
TDS: Ter Die Sumendus, or TID Ter in Die, Thrice daily
QDS: Quater Die Sumendus, or QID Quater In Die; 4 times a day
PRN: Pro Re Nate - As occasion requires. As needed
TTO: To Take Out, or TTA To Take Away. Prescription drugs for the patient to take home.
R/V: Review
ABR: Awaiting Blood Results (?)
PO: Per Oram - by mouth
PR: Per rectum - by rectum, rectally. Sometimes referring to exam thereof
PV: Per vaginum - vaginally. Sometimes referring to exam thereof
DRE: Digital Rectal Exam
DLE: Declared Life Extinct; dead
My American colleagues use terms such as "q6h" meaning "quaque 6 hora", or every 6 hours. Other numbers can be inserted as appropriate, obviously

There are clearly more; I'll edit as I think of them, or steal them from the comments box.

CVA: Cerebro-vascular accident
TIA: Transient Ischaemic Attack
MRI: Magnetic Resonance Imaging
NOF: Neck of Femur
MSU: Mid stream urine
CSU: Catheter sample urine
IV: Intravenous
FBC: Full blood count
U+E: Urea and electrolytes
G&S: Group and Save
HB: Haemoglobin
INR: international normalised ratio
MI: Myocardial infarction
PE: Pulmonary embolism
AF: Atrial fibrillation
COPD: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
UTI: Urinary tract infection
VD (or STD): Venereal disease/Sexually transmitted disease
(N)IDDM: (Non) Insulin Dependant Diabetic Mellitus
Ca: Cancer, or carcinoma
RTA/RTC/RTI: Road traffic accident/collision/incident
NKDA: No Known Drug Allergies
ENT: Ears, Nose and Throat (Otolaryngology)
MaxFax: Oral and Maxillofacial surgery
GUM: Genito-urinary medicine
Obs: Obstetrics OR Observations (vital signs) depending on context
SYS: Systolic
DIA: Diastolic
?: Query
#: Fracture

Not strictly medical terms but job titles (and a few wards) often get the works as well:

HO: House Officer (F1)
SHO: Senoir House Officer (F2 to about CT/ST 2 or 3?)
Reg: Registrar (?CT3+)
RN: Registered Nurse
(S)SN: (Senior) Staff Nurse
(S)SR: (Senior) Sister
(S)CN: (Senior) Charge Nurse
HCA/NA/Aux: Healthcare Assistant/Nursing Auxillary
OT: Occupational Therapy
CAU/MAU/AAU: Clinical/Medical/Acute Assessment unit
CCU: Coronary Care unit
ITU/ICU: Intensive Treatment/Care unit
HDU: High dependency unit
NICU/SCBU: Neonatal Intensive care unit/Special care baby unit

These probably are more regional since I'm a London lad:
LAS - London Ambulance Service (See also EMS - Emergency Medical Services)
G4S - Group 4 Security (Transport ambulances)

And my personal favourite that has appeared a lot recently:
FLU: Stupidity