UNIT I
Introduction
The learning of radiological English is probably the most demanding of all medical English by specialty. On the one hand, radiology covers the whole anatomy, physiology and pathology of the body, so radiologists in the years of residency, before getting involved in a radiological subspecialty, must be familiar with virtually all medical English terminology; there is no other specialty in which this happens. Cardiologists are not interested at all in meniscal tears and orthopedic surgeons do not need to know a word about arrhythmias (not even arrhythmia itself, which is one of the most fre- quently misspelled medical words). On the other hand, the multiplicity of radiological subspecialties makes it extremely difficult, even for radiolo- gists, to be familiar with the jargon of each subspecialty: an interventional radiologist would be completely lost in a talk on mammography, and a mammographer might not know the name of most interventional radiol- ogy devices.
A sound knowledge of English grammar is pivotal in order to build your radiological English consistently. To be fluent in anatomical English is cru- cial for radiologists; we need to know what the normal structures look like and are called, and how to express their relationships with radiological findings. Anatomy is so linked to Latin and Greek that unless you are fa- miliar with Latin and Greek terminology you will never be able to speak and write either anatomical or radiological English properly. Besides, radi- ologists must be aware of the technical aspects of their subspecialties and must be able to talk about them in an intelligible manner to patients, refer- ring physicians, residents, nurses, and technicians.
Besides the technical medical language, the radiologist must understand patients' medical English which is the language used by patients talking about their conditions. Both in ultrasound and interventional radiology, patients talk about their conditions to the radiologists, but don't forget than in CT and MR units patients are interviewed by technologists who must be aware of the usual expressions used by patients with regard to their illnesses.
Unit I Methodological Approach
to Radiological English
Let's do a simple exercise. Read this sentence of radiological English:
1) Furthermore, ghost image artifacts arising from the intraluminal signal can be used to prove the vascular nature of these lesions.
We are sure you understand the sentence and that you are able to translate it into your own language almost instantly; unfortunately translation is not only useless but deleterious to your radiological English with regard to flu- ency.
If you try to read the paragraph in English out-loud, your first difficulties will appear.
If a conversation on the sentence starts and the audience is waiting for your opinion, you may begin to sweat.
If you are not currently doing MR, ªghost artifactº (UK: artefact) may mean nothing to you.
Check the words you are not able to pronounce easily and look them up in the dictionary.
Ask an English-speaking colleague to read it aloud; try to write it; probably you will find some difficulty in writing certain words.
Check the words you are not able to write properly and look them up in the dictionary.
Finally, try to have a conversation on the topic.
Notice how many problems have been raised by just one sentence of radio- logical English. Our advice is that once you have diagnosed your actual ra- diological English level:
Do not get depressed if it is below your expectations.
Keep doing these exercises with progressively longer paragraphs beginning with those belonging to your subspecialty.
Arrange radiological English sessions at your institution. A session once a week might be a good starting point. The sessions will keep you, and your colleagues, in touch with at least a weekly radiological English meeting.
You will notice that you feel much more confident talking to colleagues with a lower level than yours than talking to your native English teacher as you will feel better talking to non-native English-speaking radiologists than talking to native English-speaking colleagues. In these sessions you can re- hearse the performance of talks and lectures so that when you give a pre- sentation at an international meeting it is not the first time it has been de- livered.
Unit I Methodological Approach to Radiological English 4
Let's evaluate our radiological English level with these ten simple (?) exer- cises:
Are the following five sentences correct?
1. Baker's cysts are hyperintense on T2.
± NOT CORRECT
The use of ª-weighted imageº after T1, T2, and PD is imperative since all images contain T1, T2, and PD information, and we call sequences with re- gard to their predominant, although not exclusive, weighting. Therefore the correct sentence is:
· Baker's cysts are hyperintense on T2-weighted images.
2. The flexor digitorum long tendon is rarely involved with abnormalities.
± NOT CORRECT The correct sentence is:
· The flexor digitorum longus tendon is rarely involved with abnormali- ties.
Always double-check Latin/Greek terminology spellings.
3. 57-years-old patient with severe abdominal pain.
± NOT CORRECT The correct sentence is:
· 57-year-old patient with severe abdominal pain.
ª57-year-oldº is, in this case, an adjective, and adjectives, when they pre- cede a name, cannot be written in the plural.
4. There was not biopsy of the lesion.
± NOT CORRECT The correct sentence is:
· There was no biopsy of the lesion.
We could have said instead ªthere was not a biopsy of the lesionº or ªthere was not any biopsy of the lesionº.
5. 87-year-old patient with arrythmia.
± NOT CORRECT
ªArrhythmiaº is one of the most commonly misspelled words in medical English. You can avoid this recurrent mistake by checking that the word ªrhythmº (provided it is spelled correctly!) is embedded in ªarrhythmiaº.
6. What does ªwindow an imageº mean?
To adjust the appropriate window and level settings.
7. What would you understand if in an interventional radiology suite you hear: ªDance with meº?
Someone is asking to have his/her gown tied up.
8. Are ªHarvard studentsº and ªHarvard alumniº synonymous?
NO. The former term refers to current students and the latter to former students.
9. How would you ask a patient to perform a Valsalva maneuver?
Bear down as if you are having a bowel movement.
10. Are ªhome callsº and ªin-house callsº synonymous?
NO. They are not synonymous but antonymous; they express opposite con- cepts. In ªhome callsº you will hopefully sleep at home, whereas in ªin- house callsº you must stay in the hospital for the whole clinical duty.
This set of questions is intended for those who think that radiological Eng- lish is not worth giving a second thought to. On the one hand, most radiol- ogists who have never worked in English-speaking hospitals tend to under- estimate the difficulty of radiological English; they think that provided you speak English you will not find any problems in radiological environments.
On the other hand, those who have suffered in their own skins embarras- sing situations working abroad, do not dare say that either English or ra- diological English are easy.
Unit I Methodological Approach to Radiological English 6
