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#94407 - 03/30/08 11:57 PM Comma with diagnosis - reference, please
Jiffer
Member


Registered: 11/01/06
Posts: 125
Hi,

Can somebody help me with a concrete reference for placing commas with a diagnosis, please. I have checked the BOS but cannot seem to find it. I can't seem to find it in my M-TEC notes either.

Diagnosis:
Cataract, right eye. (There is a comma here, but I can't reference why anywhere although I know there should be because of the inverted diagnosis).

Diagnosis:
Abdominal pain NYD or Abdominal pain, NYD. I cannot find a reference for either and have always typed it without a comma but now have seen it typed with a comma and am wondering about a reference for this also.

Thanks very much!

Puzzled Jiffer

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#94414 - 03/31/08 07:47 AM Re: Comma with diagnosis - reference, please [Re: Jiffer]
14tonks
Member


Registered: 10/25/01
Posts: 5972
Loc: Only 3rd world country in US
If you are considering something as a parenthetical adding additional optional information to what came before, you set if off with commas. That's the basis for the comma before right eye, and it would also be the basis for the comma before NYD. In the first case you are regarding the location of the cataract as additional parenthetical information, and in the second case you are regarding the cause of the abdominal pain the same way.

It's difficult to give a hard and fast rule, of course, because it's often a judgment call whether something is parenthetical or not. If you need either some additional words or a comma in place of them to make the structure of the thought clear on first reading, then use the comma. For instance, you could consider your two examples to be saying cataract (in the) right eye and abdominal pain (from causes) NYD.

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#94429 - 03/31/08 06:20 PM Re: Comma with diagnosis - reference, please [Re: 14tonks]
Donna2
Member


Registered: 12/31/69
Posts: 6152
Loc: Sunny FL
Cataract, right eye. Right eye cataract. It is hard to find a reference on this, but the comma set it off to show that cataract is a diagnosis, and the eye is which one. It just doesn't sit well without the comma. Cataract right eye almost sounds like its own diagnosis without other options. Hard to explain, but I think your judgment is correct that the comma goes there.
_________________________
Donna



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#94892 - 04/07/08 09:37 AM Re: Comma with diagnosis - reference, please [Re: Donna2]
Challa1976
New Member


Registered: 04/04/08
Posts: 4
Hi all
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