Unifying abbreviations for biologicals in trials and publications

U. Müller-Ladner

University of Giessen, Kerckhoff Clinic, Bad Nauheim, Germany

SIR, The increasing use of biologicals in all kinds of rheumatological disorders and the rapid development and introduction of novel drugs in this field has led to a variety of abbreviations for each of the monoclonal antibodies and soluble receptors. For example, when screening the literature of the past years, at least seven different abbreviations or codes could be found for infliximab, including INF, INFL, INX, IFN, IFX, IXM and IMB. In contrast to the abbreviations that are generally accepted nowadays for conventional DMARDs, such as MTX, AZA and SSZ, this inhomogeneous coding for biologicals appears rather confusing and does not support an easy understanding of figures and tables addressing the outcome of biologicals-related research and clinical trials. Therefore, it would be recommendable to initiate a unifying abbreviation system that meets both the need for practicability and logic as well as applicability for all present and upcoming biologicals in rheumatology. For this purpose, the following algorithm of a three-letter-coding system is suggested for discussion.

The first two letters are the first two letters of the generic, i.e. IN for infliximab, ET for etanercept, AD for adalimumab, etc. The third letter indicates the biological structure or class of the drug, i.e. X for a chimeric monoclonal antibody, Z for a humanized monoclonal antibody, M for a human monoclonal antibody, C for a soluble receptor/receptor–antibody fusion protein, and R for a receptor antagonist. Table 1 shows the resulting codes for the individual biologicals actually used in rheumatology.


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TABLE 1. Basic abbreviation list for currently used biologicals in trials and publications in rheumatology

 
Accepted 5 August 2005





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