Common medical misspellings

It is important that we avoid misspellings on Radiopaedia to ensure that the site is easy to read and trusted. There are a number of radiology/medical words we find are commonly misspelt, even by native English speakers:

• -penia (word suffix)
  • thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, neutropenia, etc., are the correct spellings
  • spelling any of these words with "-paenia" instead of "penia" is incorrect; these are not British variants
• azygos vein
  • azygos vein is the correct spelling
  • azygous is incorrect
• diverticula
  • diverticula is the only acceptable plural of diverticulum
  • diverticulae/diverticuli are incorrect
• epididymides
  • epididymides is the correct plural for epididymis
  • epididymi/epididymises are incorrect
• radiopaque
  • this is commonly misspelt radio-opaque, and historically is seen in some texts, but if you say the word out loud, it is clear that phonetically this is the correct spelling
• septa
  • septa is the only acceptable plural of septum
  • septae/septi are incorrect

In addition to the above there are also several words for which Radiopaedia has decided to use a specific form. Please see words we never use for more detail.