Frequency in usage of FCAT‐approved anatomical terms by North American anatomists

Abstract

It has been 10 years since the Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology (FCAT) published Terminologia Anatomica (TA), the current authority on anatomical nomenclature. There exists a perceived lack of unity among anatomists to adopt many FCAT recommended anatomical terms in TA. An e-mail survey was sent to members of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA) to determine the frequency of FCAT term usage by North American anatomists. The survey consisted of 29 questions, including 25 different sets of synonymic names for selected gross anatomical structures or related terms. Overall results indicate that the FCAT preferred term had the highest frequency of usage in only 44.0% of the survey questions. As frequency of use of FCAT terms decreased, the corresponding frequency of use of non-FCAT terms increased. Some questions showed almost complete compliance with the FCAT preferred terms (highest = 98.4% usage) to almost complete disregard for the FCAT terms (lowest = 0.8% usage). A slight association (P = 0.06) may exist between FCAT familiarity and concern for usage of synonymic terms. The more familiar anatomists were with the FCAT, the more concerned they were with anatomic synonyms.

Familiarity with Latin and Greek anatomical terms and course performance in undergraduates

“…In particular, Moore (1988) noted that while most anatomists used terms designated by the International Federation of Associations of Anatomists in the Basle Nomina Anatomica (IANC, 1989), replaced by the Terminologia Anatomica since 1998 (FCAT, 1998); though Martin and colleagues (2009) report that the use of Terminologia Anatomica among anatomists in North America is quite variable. Practicing clinicians and physicians often have their own anatomical vocabulary derived from their personal clinic-based learning experiences (Martin et al, 2009(Martin et al, , 2010.…”

Análisis del Conocimiento de la Terminología Anatómica Internacional (TAI) por el Cirujano General

“…Basado en ésta Terminología Internacional en latín, cada idioma puede formular su propia nomenclatura. Si bien se desaconseja el uso de epónimos, existe un apéndice con los más frecuentes (Acuña et al;Algieri et al, 2010aAlgieri et al, , 2010bAlgieri et al, , 2011aAlgieri et al, , 2011bÁlvarez & Campohermoso;Federative Committee on Anatomical Terminology, 1998;ManzanaresCéspedes, 2010;Martin et al, 2009Martin et al, , 2010Matusz, 2010;Vogl, 2009;Whitemore, 2009). A partir del 2001 la Sociedad Anatómica Española tradujo esta Terminología Anató-mica Internacional al idioma español y se encuentra publicado por Ed.…”

Contrast in usage of FCAT‐approved anatomical terminology between members of two anatomy associations in North America

“…First, TA and other terminology systems have been criticized for not considering linguistic aspects before forming new anatomical nomenclature (Mareckova et al, 2001;Polackova, 2001;Baud et al, 2002;Martin et al, 2009). The FCAT has been primarily concerned with including anatomical terms from all parts of the English-speaking world for democratic input, not just North America.…”

“…The TA essentially replaced the sixth edition of Nomina Anatomica (NA) published by the International Anatomical Nomenclature Committee (IANC) as the current authority for gross anatomical terms (Dirckx, 2000). Nearly 12 years later, considerable discussion has recently arisen concerning the issue of anatomists' compliance to the FCAT-approved anatomical terms in TA (Kachlik et al, 2008;Gest et al, 2009;Laitman, 2009;Martin et al, 2009;Pawlina and Drake, 2009;Vogl, 2009;Whitmore, 2009).…”