Clinical trial naming conventions

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Clinical trials are often assigned contrived acronyms.[1][2] Some common themes include acronyms excluding words from the acronym and including letters taken from the middle of words.[3] It is suggested that the use of acronyms in titles is associated with a higher citation rate of research publications.[4]

Background

Acronyms were first used to identify clinical trials in the 1970s.

initialism for University Group Diabetes Program. The first trial title commonly pronounced as an English-language word or words came in 1982 with the publication of "MRFIT", referring to the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial, and spoken as "Mr. Fit" or "the Mr. Fit trial".[5]

The term "acronymophilia" was coined in 1994 to refer to the overuse of acronyms in medicine.[6]

An article in the

homonyms pronounced as a recognizable English word but spelled in a novel way; descriptive medical words relating to the study topic, such as CARDIAC and RALES; medical or health words that are not related to the topic of the study, such as ALIVE or RESCUE; and other English words not related to the topic, with a wide variety of subjects, including myths, places, musical terms, animals, and space, such as ISIS, CASANOVA, and APRICOT.[5]

Examples

A scientific study ranking acronyms was published in the

British Medical Journal. Some of the negatively graded criteria include using letters that do not begin a word, and including letters in the acronym that are not found in the title. According to their metric, some of the worst names included "METGO: A 48-week, randomized, double-blind, double-observer, placebo-controlled multicenter trial of combination METhotrexate and intramuscular GOld therapy in rheumatoid arthritis", "PERFORM: Prevention of cerebrovascular and cardiovascular Events of ischaemic origin with teRutroban in patients with a history oF ischaemic strOke or tRansient ischaeMic attack", and "TYPHOON: Trial to assess the use of the cYPHer sirolimus-eluting coronary stent in acute myocardial infarction treated with BallOON angioplasty". Their ranking of acronyms shows a decrease in measured quality between 2000 and 2012.[4]

In a letter to the International Journal of Cardiology, Tsung O. Cheng called out his own field as prone to overuse of contrived acronyms, calling it a "persistent problem". He was spurred to write the letter after he reviewed nine articles about a study named "ZAHARA" without finding any explanation of what the acronym meant.[3][7][8]

Other clinical trials that have been noted in publications for their acronyms include: TORPEDO (Thrombus Obliteration by Rapid Percutaneous Endovenous Intervention (PEVI) in Deep Venous Occlusion)[9] and BATMAN (Bisphosphonate and Anastrozole Trial – Bone Maintenance Algorithm Assessment).[9]

See also

References

  1. ^ Lowe, Derek (18 July 2019). "Acronym Fever. We Need an Acronym For That". In the Pipeline. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  2. PMID 16823008
    .
  3. ^ .
  4. ^ .
  5. ^ .
  6. .
  7. . Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  8. .
  9. ^ a b "Clinical trial names can be quite AMUSING, but they don't include unicorns : Spoonful of Medicine". blogs.nature.com. Retrieved 1 May 2020.

External links