Clinical trial naming conventions

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.[5] The first identified instance was "UGDP", an 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 Annals of Internal Medicine classified clinical trial titles into five broad groups: un-abbreviated titles; initialisms that are not pronounced as English words; 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. ↑ Stanbrook, Matthew B.; Austin, Peter C.; Redelmeier, Donald A. (6 July 2006). "Acronym-Named Randomized Trials in Medicine — The ART in Medicine Study". New England Journal of Medicine. 355 (1): 101–102. doi:10.1056/NEJMc053420. PMID 16823008.
  3. 1 2 Fred, Herbert L.; Cheng, Tsung O. (2003). "Acronymesis". Texas Heart Institute Journal. 30 (4): 255–257. ISSN 0730-2347. PMC 307708. PMID 14677733.
  4. 1 2 Pottegård, Anton; Haastrup, Maija Bruun; Stage, Tore Bjerregaard; Hansen, Morten Rix; Larsen, Kasper Søltoft; Meegaard, Peter Martin; Meegaard, Line Haugaard Vrdlovec; Horneberg, Henrik; Gils, Charlotte; Dideriksen, Dorthe; Aagaard, Lise; Almarsdottir, Anna Birna; Hallas, Jesper; Damkier, Per (16 December 2014). "SearCh for humourIstic and Extravagant acroNyms and Thoroughly Inappropriate names For Important Clinical trials (SCIENTIFIC): qualitative and quantitative systematic study". BMJ. 349: g7092. doi:10.1136/bmj.g7092. ISSN 1756-1833. PMC 4267482. PMID 25516539.
  5. 1 2 3 Berkwits, Michael (7 November 2000). "CAPTURE! SHOCK! EXCITE! Clinical Trial Acronyms and the "Branding" of Clinical Research". Annals of Internal Medicine. 133 (9): 755–62. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-133-9-200011070-00039. PMID 11074930. S2CID 31188922.
  6. ↑ Isaacs, D.; Fitzgerald, D. (December 2000). "Acronymophilia: an update". Archives of Disease in Childhood. 83 (6): 517–518. doi:10.1136/adc.83.6.517. ISSN 0003-9888. PMC 1718581. PMID 11087292.
  7. ↑ Cheng, Tsung O. (1 November 2009). "What is the ZAHARA study? Acronymania is an incurable Disease Afflicting MAiNly the cardiologisTs (ADAMANT)". International Journal of Cardiology. 137 (3): 289. doi:10.1016/j.ijcard.2008.05.056. PMID 18692260. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  8. ↑ Cheng, Tsung O. (5 April 2000). "PASTA is good, but SUSHI is better". Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions. 49 (4): 478–479a. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1522-726X(200004)49:4<478::AID-CCD29>3.0.CO;2-P. PMID 10751783.
  9. 1 2 "Clinical trial names can be quite AMUSING, but they don't include unicorns : Spoonful of Medicine". blogs.nature.com. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
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