Naming human diseases
International standards and resources
The World Health Organization International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems(Opens in a new tab/window) (11th edition) (ICD-11) is an authoritative source of terminology for human diseases and other medical conditions.
Australian conventions and resources
The Public Health Laboratory Network (part of the Communicable Diseases Network Australia) provides case definitions(Opens in a new tab/window) for human communicable diseases in Australia.
Terms to watch out for:
communicable, contagious, infectious, infective, noncommunicable, transmissible
condition, disease, disorder, illness, syndrome
Formal names of human diseases often use Latin or Greek binomial terms. Basic binomial disease names consist of the name of the type of disease (e.g. ‘paralysis’, ‘diabetes’ [passing water]) and at least 1 other descriptor (e.g. ‘agitans’, ‘mellitus’). Do not italicise or capitalise any of these terms:
paralysis agitans [Parkinson disease] diabetes mellitus
Generally, the name of choice for any disease in any language should be the common term. For international communication, the most commonly used English term is preferred. Publications should include any synonyms in the list of keywords or glossary.
Use British spellings and lower case for common names of diseases, even if the disease name is usually abbreviated to an acronym:
chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) type 2 diabetes
Exceptions are proper nouns and some (but not all) letters denoting type or subtype:
Japanese encephalitis Parkinson disease hepatitis B Haemophilus influenzae type b disease
Reminder. Just because the abbreviation of a term is made up of capitals, it does not mean that the term has initial capitals when it is spelt out.
Use an initial capital but not a possessive s for diseases named after a person (eponymic terms):
Alzheimer disease not Alzheimer’s disease
Crohn disease not Crohn’s disease
Down syndrome not Down’s syndrome
For noun and derivative forms of eponymic disease names, do not use a capital letter:
Parkinson disease but parkinsonism
See Proper nouns for further information on eponymic terms.
When writing about people with diseases or conditions, avoid defining the person by their disease:
person with diabetes not diabetic
person with epilepsy not epileptic
See also Inclusive and respectful language.
Electrocardiography
International standards and resources
The Merck manual includes a description of ECG leads and components(Opens in a new tab/window).
An electrocardiograph (ECG) is a study of the magnitude of the heart’s electrical potential, which is measured by placing 10 electrodes on the patient’s limbs and surface of the chest to monitor 12 electrical vectors (‘leads’). Leads are designated frontal leads (I, II and III), limb leads (aVR, aVL and aVF) and chest leads (V1, V2, V3, V4, V5 and V6).
ECG waves are designated P, Q, R, S and T:
P wave [no hyphen]
Complexes of more than one wave are designated by unspaced letters. Intervals between waves can be designated either by unspaced letters, as for complexes, or by an unspaced en dash. Include the word complex or interval:
QRS complex PR interval or P–R interval
Cancer terms
International standards and resources
The World Health Organization International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems(Opens in a new tab/window) (11th edition) (ICD-11) is an authoritative source of terminology for human diseases and other medical conditions.
The United States National Cancer Institute has published an online dictionary of cancer terms(Opens in a new tab/window).
The Union for International Cancer Control(Opens in a new tab/window) (UICC) developed the TNM (tumour, node, metastasis) classification for malignant tumours(Opens in a new tab/window).
Australian conventions and resources
Cancer Australia(Opens in a new tab/window) provides a glossary of terms(Opens in a new tab/window).
Names of cancer types are not capitalised, apart from proper nouns:
adenocarcinoma squamous cell carcinoma acute lymphocytic leukaemia
Hodgkin lymphoma
Also use lower case for other cancer descriptors (although the acronym uses capitals):
low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) small cell lung cancer (SCLC)
Cancer stages are described using lower case for stage and capital roman numerals:
stage 0 stage I stage II stage III stage IV
Use lower case and arabic numerals for tumour grades:
grade 1 grade 2 grade 3 grade 4
Various systems are used for staging different types of cancer. The most common system for solid tumours is the UICC TNM (tumour, node, metastasis) classification. TNM stages do not contain spaces:
T1N0M0 T3N3M1