Neurology Abbreviations
131 abbreviations · part of Medical Abbreviations
Abbreviations for conditions of the brain, spinal cord, nerves and muscles, together with the tests, scales, procedures and anatomy used to diagnose and treat them, as found in stroke codes, neurology consult notes, EEG and EMG reports, neurosurgery records and rehabilitation plans. Several short forms have more than one neurological meaning (ICH can be intracerebral or intracranial hemorrhage) and others clash with common meanings elsewhere (MS, AD, PD), so the surrounding note matters. Time-critical terms such as LKW, NIHSS and tPA appear in emergency stroke protocols, where precise documentation directly affects eligibility for treatment.
| Abbreviation | Stands for | Description |
|---|---|---|
| ABCD2 | Age, Blood pressure, Clinical features, Duration, Diabetes | Score estimating early stroke risk after a transient ischemic attack, assigning points for age 60 or older, blood pressure of 140/90 or higher, unilateral weakness or… |
| ACA | Anterior cerebral artery | Branch of the internal carotid artery that runs between the brain's hemispheres, supplying the medial frontal and parietal lobes, including motor and sensory areas for… |
| AChR | Acetylcholine receptor | Receptor on muscle cells at the neuromuscular junction that responds to acetylcholine released by nerves; antibodies against it cause myasthenia gravis. |
| ACom | Anterior communicating artery | Short vessel connecting the two anterior cerebral arteries at the front of the circle of Willis, allowing blood to cross between hemispheres. |
| AD | Alzheimer's disease | Most common cause of dementia, accounting for an estimated 60 to 80 percent of cases, marked by progressive memory loss and decline in thinking, language and daily… |
| ADEM | Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis | Inflammatory demyelinating illness, usually in children, that often follows a viral infection or, rarely, vaccination. |
| AED | Antiepileptic drug | Older umbrella term for medicines that prevent seizures, from phenytoin and carbamazepine to levetiracetam and lamotrigine. |
| AIS | Acute ischemic stroke | Stroke caused by a blood clot or narrowing that cuts off blood supply to part of the brain, presenting with sudden deficits such as facial droop, arm weakness or speech… |
| ALS | Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis | Progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease that destroys upper and lower motor neurons, causing increasing weakness, muscle wasting, twitching, swallowing and speech… |
| AMS | Altered mental status | Broad description of any change from a person's normal level of alertness, attention, orientation or behavior, ranging from mild confusion to coma. |
| ASIA | American Spinal Injury Association | Professional organization whose International Standards for Neurological Classification of Spinal Cord Injury define the standardized sensory and motor examination… |
| ASM | Antiseizure medication | Term now preferred by the International League Against Epilepsy for drugs used to control seizures, because they suppress seizures rather than cure epilepsy. |
| ASPECTS | Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score | Ten-point score for early ischemic changes on noncontrast CT in the middle cerebral artery territory: one point is subtracted for each of ten regions showing damage. |
| AVM | Arteriovenous malformation | Tangle of abnormal blood vessels in which arteries connect directly to veins without an intervening capillary bed, most often in the brain or spinal cord. |
| BE-FAST | Balance, Eyes, Face, Arm, Speech, Time | Expanded version of the FAST stroke-recognition acronym that adds sudden loss of balance and sudden vision changes, aiming to catch posterior circulation strokes that… |
| CAA | Cerebral amyloid angiopathy | Deposition of amyloid protein in the walls of small arteries of the brain's surface and cortex, making them fragile. |
| cEEG | Continuous electroencephalography | EEG monitoring lasting hours to days, typically in intensive care units, to detect nonconvulsive seizures, guide treatment of status epilepticus and monitor brain… |
| CIDP | Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy | Immune-mediated disease of peripheral nerves causing symmetric weakness and sensory loss in arms and legs that progresses or relapses over more than eight weeks. |
| CIS | Clinically isolated syndrome | First episode of neurological symptoms lasting at least 24 hours that is typical of demyelination, such as optic neuritis, a brainstem syndrome or partial myelitis, in… |
| CJD | Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease | Rare, fatal prion disease causing rapidly progressive dementia, jerking movements (myoclonus), ataxia and visual problems, with death usually within a year. |
| CMT | Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease | Most common inherited peripheral neuropathy, affecting roughly 1 in 2,500 people, causing slowly progressive weakness and wasting of the feet, lower legs and hands… |
| CP | Cerebral palsy | Group of permanent movement and posture disorders caused by damage to the developing brain before, during or shortly after birth. |
| CPP | Cerebral perfusion pressure | Pressure driving blood flow to the brain, calculated as mean arterial pressure minus intracranial pressure. |
| CSC | Comprehensive stroke center | Highest level of stroke center certification in the US, for hospitals able to treat the most complex strokes around the clock, with endovascular thrombectomy… |
| CTE | Chronic traumatic encephalopathy | Progressive degenerative brain disease associated with repeated head impacts, such as in American football, boxing, soccer heading and military blast exposure. |
| CVA | Cerebrovascular accident | Traditional medical term for a stroke: sudden loss of brain function caused by blocked blood flow (ischemic stroke, about 87 percent of cases) or bleeding (hemorrhagic… |
| CVST | Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis | Clot in the veins or venous sinuses that drain blood from the brain, causing headache, seizures, focal deficits, raised intracranial pressure and sometimes hemorrhage. |
| DAI | Diffuse axonal injury | Widespread shearing damage to nerve fibers caused by rapid rotational acceleration and deceleration of the head, as in high-speed crashes. |
| DBS | Deep brain stimulation | Neurosurgical treatment in which electrodes are implanted in specific deep brain targets and connected to a pacemaker-like generator in the chest that delivers… |
| DCI | Delayed cerebral ischemia | New neurological worsening or infarction occurring days after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage, typically between days 4 and 14, often related to vasospasm of brain… |
| DLB | Dementia with Lewy bodies | Dementia caused by alpha-synuclein (Lewy body) deposits in the cortex, characterized by fluctuating attention, detailed visual hallucinations, parkinsonism and REM… |
| DMD | Duchenne muscular dystrophy | X-linked genetic disease in boys caused by absence of the muscle protein dystrophin, producing progressive weakness from early childhood, enlarged calves, and later… |
| DMT | Disease-modifying therapy | Treatment that changes the underlying course of a disease rather than only relieving symptoms, most often referring to drugs for multiple sclerosis that reduce… |
| DTN | Door-to-needle time | Interval from a stroke patient's arrival at the hospital to the start of intravenous thrombolysis, a key quality measure for stroke programs. |
| DTR | Deep tendon reflex | Involuntary muscle contraction produced by tapping a tendon with a reflex hammer, testing the integrity of a specific spinal reflex arc. |
| EDH | Epidural hematoma | Bleeding between the skull and the dura, usually from a torn middle meningeal artery under a temporal bone fracture. |
| EDS | Excessive daytime sleepiness | Persistent difficulty staying awake and alert during the day, with unintended dozing or sleep episodes, despite adequate time in bed. |
| EDSS | Expanded Disability Status Scale | Scale from 0 to 10 in half-point steps that quantifies disability in multiple sclerosis based on neurological examination of functional systems and walking ability. |
| EEG | Electroencephalogram | Recording of the brain's electrical activity through electrodes placed on the scalp, used to diagnose epilepsy, classify seizure types, evaluate unexplained confusion… |
| EMG | Electromyography | Test in which a fine needle electrode is inserted into muscles to record their electrical activity at rest and during contraction, distinguishing nerve damage from… |
| EMU | Epilepsy monitoring unit | Specialized inpatient unit where patients undergo continuous video-EEG for several days, often with antiseizure medications reduced, to capture and characterize their… |
| EP | Evoked potentials | Electrical responses of the brain or spinal cord to specific stimuli, recorded with scalp electrodes: visual evoked potentials (VEP) use a reversing checkerboard… |
| ESUS | Embolic stroke of undetermined source | Category for nonlacunar ischemic strokes that look embolic on imaging but have no identified source after standard testing, including heart monitoring, echocardiography… |
| ET | Essential tremor | Common movement disorder causing rhythmic shaking of the hands and arms during action, such as writing or drinking, and sometimes the head or voice. |
| ETV | Endoscopic third ventriculostomy | Neurosurgical procedure in which an endoscope is passed into the brain's ventricles to create a small opening in the floor of the third ventricle, letting cerebrospinal… |
| EVD | External ventricular drain | Temporary catheter inserted through a burr hole into a lateral ventricle and connected to an external collection system, used to drain cerebrospinal fluid and measure… |
| EVT | Endovascular thrombectomy | Catheter procedure that removes a clot from a large brain artery, usually with a stent retriever or aspiration catheter, threaded from the groin or wrist. |
| FAST | Face, Arm, Speech, Time | Public education acronym for recognizing stroke: face drooping, arm weakness and speech difficulty mean it is time to call emergency services immediately. |
| FTD | Frontotemporal dementia | Group of dementias caused by degeneration of the frontal and temporal lobes, typically starting between ages 45 and 65 with changes in personality, behavior, judgment… |
| GBS | Guillain-Barré syndrome | Acute autoimmune attack on peripheral nerves, typically causing tingling and weakness that start in the feet and ascend over days to weeks, with loss of reflexes. |
| GTC | Generalized tonic-clonic seizure | Seizure involving both sides of the brain, with a stiffening (tonic) phase followed by rhythmic jerking (clonic) of all limbs, loss of consciousness, and often tongue… |
| HA | Headache | Charting abbreviation for headache, one of the most common reasons for neurology and emergency visits. |
| HD | Huntington's disease | Inherited neurodegenerative disease caused by an expanded CAG repeat in the HTT gene, producing involuntary movements (chorea), psychiatric symptoms and progressive… |
| HIE | Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy | Brain injury caused by inadequate oxygen and blood flow, seen in newborns after birth asphyxia and in adults after cardiac arrest, drowning or strangulation. |
| HINTS | Head Impulse, Nystagmus, Test of Skew | Three-part bedside eye examination for patients with acute continuous vertigo that helps distinguish a benign inner-ear cause from a dangerous stroke in the brainstem… |
| ICH | Intracerebral hemorrhage | Bleeding directly into brain tissue, accounting for about 10 to 15 percent of strokes and carrying high mortality. |
| ICP | Intracranial pressure | Pressure inside the skull exerted by brain tissue, blood and cerebrospinal fluid, normally about 5 to 15 mmHg in adults. |
| IIH | Idiopathic intracranial hypertension | Raised pressure of the fluid around the brain without a mass or other identifiable cause, mostly affecting women of childbearing age with obesity. |
| IVH | Intraventricular hemorrhage | Bleeding into the fluid-filled ventricles of the brain. |
| JME | Juvenile myoclonic epilepsy | Common genetic generalized epilepsy beginning in adolescence, marked by brief muscle jerks (myoclonus) of the arms soon after waking, often with generalized… |
| LBD | Lewy body dementia | Umbrella term covering two related conditions caused by Lewy body deposits: dementia with Lewy bodies, in which cognitive decline comes first, and Parkinson's disease… |
| LEMS | Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome | Autoimmune disorder in which antibodies attack voltage-gated calcium channels at nerve endings, reducing acetylcholine release. |
| LKW | Last known well | Most recent time a patient was observed or known to be at their neurological baseline, used to define stroke onset when the exact start of symptoms is unknown. |
| LMN | Lower motor neuron | Motor nerve cell in the brainstem or spinal cord whose axon travels in a peripheral nerve directly to muscle. |
| LOC | Loss of consciousness | Episode of being unresponsive and unaware of surroundings, documented after head injuries, falls, fainting and seizures. "No LOC" or "+LOC" is a key element of trauma… |
| LP | Lumbar puncture | Procedure in which a thin needle is inserted between lumbar vertebrae, usually at L3-L4 or L4-L5 below the end of the spinal cord, to measure opening pressure and… |
| LVO | Large vessel occlusion | Blockage of a major brain artery, such as the internal carotid, the first segment of the middle cerebral artery or the basilar artery, causing severe stroke. |
| MCI | Mild cognitive impairment | Decline in memory or other thinking skills greater than expected for age, noticeable to the person and others and measurable on testing, but not severe enough to… |
| MG | Myasthenia gravis | Autoimmune disease in which antibodies block communication between nerves and muscles, causing weakness that worsens with activity and improves with rest. |
| MMSE | Mini-Mental State Examination | Thirty-point questionnaire screening for cognitive impairment through orientation, registration, attention and calculation, recall, language and copying a drawing. |
| MND | Motor neuron disease | Group of disorders in which the nerve cells controlling voluntary muscles degenerate, including ALS, primary lateral sclerosis, progressive muscular atrophy and… |
| MoCA | Montreal Cognitive Assessment | One-page, 30-point screening test for mild cognitive impairment, assessing visuospatial and executive skills, naming, memory, attention, language, abstraction and… |
| MOGAD | Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein antibody-associated disease | Inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system defined by antibodies against myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein, causing optic neuritis, transverse… |
| MOH | Medication overuse headache | Chronic headache occurring on 15 or more days a month in someone with a preexisting headache disorder, caused by regular overuse of acute headache treatments for more… |
| mRS | Modified Rankin Scale | Seven-point scale measuring disability or dependence after stroke, from 0 (no symptoms) through 3 (moderate disability, able to walk unassisted) and 5 (bedridden… |
| MS | Multiple sclerosis | Chronic immune-mediated disease in which the body's immune system attacks myelin in the brain, optic nerves and spinal cord, causing episodes of vision loss, numbness… |
| MSA | Multiple system atrophy | Rare, rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by alpha-synuclein deposits in glial cells, combining autonomic failure (fainting from low blood pressure on… |
| MSLT | Multiple sleep latency test | Daytime sleep study, performed after an overnight polysomnogram, in which the patient is given four or five 20-minute nap opportunities two hours apart to measure how… |
| MT | Mechanical thrombectomy | Removal of an arterial clot with mechanical devices rather than drugs, most commonly describing stroke treatment for large vessel occlusion. |
| mTBI | Mild traumatic brain injury | Head injury causing brief confusion, disorientation or loss of consciousness lasting under 30 minutes, with a Glasgow Coma Scale of 13 to 15 and no lasting deficits on… |
| NCS | Nerve conduction study | Test that stimulates peripheral nerves with small electrical pulses through surface electrodes and records the response, measuring how fast and how strongly signals… |
| NCSE | Nonconvulsive status epilepticus | Prolonged seizure activity without obvious convulsions, presenting as confusion, reduced responsiveness, subtle twitching or abnormal behavior. |
| NCV | Nerve conduction velocity | Speed at which an electrical impulse travels along a peripheral nerve, measured in meters per second during nerve conduction studies. |
| NF1 | Neurofibromatosis type 1 | Common genetic disorder caused by variants in the NF1 gene on chromosome 17, affecting about 1 in 3,000 people. |
| NIHSS | National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale | Standardized 15-item neurological examination that quantifies stroke severity from 0 (no deficit) to 42, scoring consciousness, gaze, vision, facial palsy, limb… |
| NMOSD | Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder | Autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that causes severe attacks of optic neuritis and long spinal cord inflammation, often with poor recovery. |
| NPH | Normal pressure hydrocephalus | Enlargement of the brain's ventricles with cerebrospinal fluid in older adults, producing the classic triad of gait disturbance, urinary incontinence and cognitive… |
| OCB | Oligoclonal bands | Distinct bands of immunoglobulin G found on electrophoresis of cerebrospinal fluid but not in matched blood, showing antibody production within the central nervous… |
| PCom | Posterior communicating artery | Vessel linking the internal carotid artery with the posterior cerebral artery on each side of the circle of Willis. |
| PCS | Post-concussion syndrome | Persistence of concussion symptoms, such as headache, dizziness, fatigue, poor concentration, irritability, sleep problems and light or noise sensitivity, beyond the… |
| PD | Parkinson's disease | Progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by loss of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra, producing slowness of movement (bradykinesia), rest tremor… |
| PICA | Posterior inferior cerebellar artery | Branch of the vertebral artery supplying the lateral medulla and the underside of the cerebellum. |
| PLEX | Plasma exchange | Procedure that removes the patient's plasma, including harmful antibodies and immune complexes, and replaces it with albumin or donor plasma, usually as five exchanges… |
| PML | Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy | Opportunistic brain infection caused by reactivation of the JC virus in people with weakened immunity, destroying myelin-producing cells and causing progressive… |
| PN | Peripheral neuropathy | Damage to nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, most often producing numbness, tingling, burning pain and weakness that start in the feet and spread upward in a… |
| PNES | Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures | Episodes that resemble epileptic seizures but are not caused by abnormal electrical brain activity, instead representing a functional neurological disorder often linked… |
| PPA | Primary progressive aphasia | Neurodegenerative syndrome in which language gradually deteriorates, with difficulty finding words, understanding or producing grammatical speech, while memory and… |
| PPMS | Primary progressive multiple sclerosis | Form of multiple sclerosis, seen in about 10 to 15 percent of patients, in which disability worsens steadily from onset without early relapses. |
| PRES | Posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome | Acute syndrome of headache, confusion, seizures and visual disturbance with brain swelling (vasogenic edema), typically in the back of the brain on MRI. |
| PSP | Progressive supranuclear palsy | Rare neurodegenerative disease caused by tau protein buildup, producing early falls, stiffness of the neck and trunk, slowed speech and swallowing, and a characteristic… |
| PTC | Pseudotumor cerebri | Older name for raised intracranial pressure without a tumor or other structural cause, producing headache, papilledema and vision problems that mimic a brain tumor. |
| PVS | Persistent vegetative state | Condition after severe brain injury in which a person has sleep-wake cycles and opens their eyes but shows no awareness of self or surroundings, lasting more than about… |
| RBD | REM sleep behavior disorder | Sleep disorder in which the normal muscle paralysis of REM sleep is lost, so people physically act out vivid, often violent dreams by shouting, punching or kicking… |
| RCVS | Reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome | Condition of temporary narrowing of brain arteries that typically causes recurrent sudden "thunderclap" headaches over one to three weeks, sometimes with stroke… |
| RLS | Restless legs syndrome | Neurological sensory-motor disorder causing an irresistible urge to move the legs, usually with uncomfortable sensations, that worsens in the evening and at rest and is… |
| RRMS | Relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis | Most common initial form of multiple sclerosis, affecting about 85 percent of people at diagnosis, in which distinct attacks of new or worsening symptoms are followed… |
| SAH | Subarachnoid hemorrhage | Bleeding into the space between the brain and its thin covering membranes, most often from trauma or, when spontaneous, from a ruptured brain aneurysm in about 85… |
| SCI | Spinal cord injury | Damage to the spinal cord from trauma or disease that impairs movement, sensation and autonomic function below the level of injury. |
| SDH | Subdural hematoma | Collection of blood between the dura and the brain's arachnoid layer, usually from tearing of bridging veins after head injury. |
| SE | Status epilepticus | Seizure lasting five minutes or longer, or repeated seizures without return to baseline between them, a neurological emergency that can cause brain damage and death. |
| SMA | Spinal muscular atrophy | Inherited disease, usually from deletions in the SMN1 gene, in which motor neurons in the spinal cord degenerate, causing progressive muscle weakness and wasting. |
| SPMS | Secondary progressive multiple sclerosis | Phase of multiple sclerosis that follows an initial relapsing-remitting course, in which disability steadily worsens with or without occasional relapses. |
| SRS | Stereotactic radiosurgery | Delivery of a single or few very precise, high doses of radiation to a small target, using imaging and immobilization to spare surrounding brain. |
| SSEP | Somatosensory evoked potentials | Recordings of the nervous system's response to electrical stimulation of a peripheral nerve, typically at the wrist or ankle, tracing signals up the spinal cord to the… |
| SUDEP | Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy | Sudden death of a person with epilepsy, usually during or after a seizure and often during sleep, without another identifiable cause. |
| Sz | Seizure | Charting shorthand for a seizure, a transient episode of abnormal, excessive electrical activity in the brain causing convulsions, staring spells, abnormal sensations… |
| TBI | Traumatic brain injury | Disruption of brain function caused by an external force, such as a blow, jolt or penetrating injury to the head, ranging from mild concussion to coma and death. |
| TCD | Transcranial Doppler | Bedside ultrasound technique that measures blood flow velocity in the major arteries at the base of the brain through thin areas of the skull. |
| TGA | Transient global amnesia | Sudden episode of inability to form new memories, typically lasting several hours, during which the person remains alert, knows who they are and repeatedly asks the… |
| TIA | Transient ischemic attack | Brief episode of neurological dysfunction, such as one-sided weakness, slurred speech or loss of vision in one eye, caused by a temporary interruption of blood flow… |
| TLE | Temporal lobe epilepsy | Most common form of focal epilepsy in adults, with seizures arising in the temporal lobe and often preceded by an aura such as déjà vu, fear or a rising sensation in… |
| TM | Transverse myelitis | Inflammation across a segment of the spinal cord that causes weakness, sensory loss below a level on the trunk, and bladder and bowel dysfunction, developing over hours… |
| TN | Trigeminal neuralgia | Severe, brief, electric shock-like facial pain in the distribution of the trigeminal nerve, usually on one side, triggered by light touch, chewing, talking or brushing… |
| tPA | Tissue plasminogen activator (alteplase) | Thrombolytic enzyme, sold as Activase, that dissolves clots by converting plasminogen to plasmin. |
| TS | Tourette syndrome | Neurodevelopmental disorder with multiple motor tics and at least one vocal tic lasting more than a year, beginning before age 18. |
| TTH | Tension-type headache | Most common primary headache disorder, causing bilateral pressing or tightening pain of mild to moderate intensity that is not worsened by routine physical activity and… |
| UMN | Upper motor neuron | Motor nerve cell whose cell body lies in the brain and whose axon runs down to the spinal cord, controlling lower motor neurons. |
| UPDRS | Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale | Comprehensive rating scale for Parkinson's disease covering nonmotor experiences, motor experiences of daily living, a clinician-performed motor examination and motor… |
| VaD | Vascular dementia | Cognitive decline caused by reduced blood flow to the brain from strokes, small vessel disease or other vascular damage. |
| VNS | Vagus nerve stimulation | Therapy in which a generator implanted under the skin of the chest sends regular electrical pulses to the left vagus nerve in the neck through a wire lead. |
| VP shunt | Ventriculoperitoneal shunt | Surgically implanted tube that drains excess cerebrospinal fluid from a brain ventricle into the abdominal cavity, where it is absorbed, to treat hydrocephalus. |
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