[Sense and nonsense of abbreviations in medical linguistic usage]

Abbreviations usually being a useful and precious help for understanding achieve yet the reverse as increasing misuse takes place, especially in medical journals. Often understood only by experts in a special field they promote neither the communications between the disciplines nor the cooperation between clinic and practice. Editors of (medical) journals, therefore, are advised to start each contribution with a tabulated glossary and an explanation of the applied abbreviations.