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. Fred, Herbert L.; Cheng, Tsung O. (2003). "Acronymesis". Texas Heart Institute Journal. 30 (4): 255–257. ISSN 0730-2347. PMC 307708. PMID 14677733.
  4. 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. 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. "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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