Morphologic Abnormalities vs. Findings

Concepts from the Morphologic Abnormality hierarchy should not be used in place of concepts from the Clinical Findings hierarchy, even though they appear to refer to similar clinical situations.

For example

4147007 | Mass (morphologic abnormality)| is not a finding, but 300848003 | Mass of body structure (finding)| is a finding

Morphologies are used as the values of the defining attributes of findings and procedures. Findings are used to represent the combination of a morphology and a location.

For example

300923002 | Cyst of scalp (disorder)| represents cystic type of morphology that has the location, scalp

Many morphologies have names that could be misinterpreted as implying a process rather than a structure.

Inflammation might mean the structural-morphologic features of inflammation, such as inflammatory cell infiltrates; or it might mean the process that causes the structural changes. Within the morphologic abnormality hierarchy, the structural interpretation is intended, not the process interpretation.

Provide Feedback