Re: Catheter-directed Thrombolytic Therapy for Limb Ischemia: Current Status and Controversies

Abstract

Editor: Regrettably, in an otherwise timely and balanced article, a few critical copy-editing errors are printed in the thrombolytic review by Razavi and colleagues (1). We laud the editorial staff of JVIR for responding rapidly to this technical error (2). Medication errors by healthcare providers is a growing public health crisis in the United States (3), and the increasing use of jargon, abbreviations, and acronyms has made it ever more confusing to pharmacists and nurses in deciphering drug orders from physicians. The nomenclature convention for therapeutic molecules is guided by the United States Adopted Names (USAN) Council, a consortium sponsored by the United States Pharmacopeial Council (USP), the American Medical Association (AMA), and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) (4). The USAN Council mission is to standardize drug nomenclature to ensure that drug information is communicated accurately and unambiguously and help avoid injury to patients resulting from medication errors. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes USAN/USP nonproprietary terms. USAN/USP–accepted generic terms for FDA-approved thrombolytic agents are: alteplase, reteplase, streptokinase, tenecteplase, and urokinase. Although there is no convention for abbreviations, we suggest that JVIR adopt the following to avoid any potential confusion in the future: ALF (alfimeprase), TPA (alteplase), RPA (reteplase), SK (streptokinase), TNK (tenecteplase), UK (human-derived urokinase), r-UK (recombinant urokinase), and pro-UK (prourokinase).