Should we ENACT laws against gambling in RENO?

Tsung O Cheng*

George Washington University Medical Center, Washington DC, USA

* Correspondence to: Prof. T. O. Cheng, George Washington University, Department of Medicine, 2150 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC 20037, USA. Tel: +1 202 741 2426; fax: +1 202 741 2324
E-mail address: tcheng{at}mfa.gwu.edu

Received 13 May 2003; accepted 20 June 2003

I enjoyed reading the two back-to-back reports by the investigators on behalf of the RENO1and ENACT2registries. However, I was rather disappointed at the lack of explanation of these two acronyms in both articles.

According to the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors,3to which your journal belongs, every acronym should be defined when first used. What perplexed me was the fact that the authors defined every other abbreviations in their texts, e.g., ACS, CABG, MACE, PCI, RCT, STEMI, VBT, etc. Perhaps it was just an inadvertent oversight on the part of the authors. Or, did they consider these ‘trade terms’ so well-known that they did not bother to define them? I suggest that you take a poll from your readers to see what percentage did not know.

In order to prevent your office from being flooded with angry letters of protest and your frustrated readers from spending hours in guessing what these two acronyms could possibly mean—like gambling, I would like to come to your rescue. As explained in an updated article on acronyms of cardiologic trials,4RENO stands for REgistry with NOvoste beta-cath® system, and ENACT stands for European Network for Acute Coronary Treatment.

References

  1. Urban P, Serruys P, Baumgart D et al, for the RENO Investigators. A multicentre European registry of intraluminal coronary beta brachytherapy. Eur Heart J. 2003;24:604–612.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  2. Steg PG, Iung B, Feldman LJ et al, for the ENACT Investigators. Determinants of use and outcomes of invasive coronary procedures in acute coronary syndromes: results from ENACT. Eur Heart J. 2003;24:613–622.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
  3. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals. N Engl J Med. 1997;336:309–315.[Free Full Text]
  4. Cheng TO, Julian D. Acronyms of cardiologic trials—2002. Int J Cardiol in press.




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