What does the abbreviation Sx stand for in medical shorthand?

• A. Symptoms
• B. Syndrome
• C. Sign
• D. Study

Answer: (A)

In medical shorthand, Sx represents symptoms—those are the experiences a patient reports about how they feel, such as pain, nausea, dizziness, or fatigue. They are subjective, coming from the patient's own description. This differs from signs, which are objective findings that a clinician can observe or measure, like a fever, rash, or high blood pressure. A syndrome, on the other hand, is a cluster of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a condition, not a single symptom. The term “study” isn’t a standard shorthand used in clinical notes. So Sx is best understood as referring to the patient’s reported symptoms.