# What does medical abbreviation bx mean?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 16, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979 "2012-03-16T16:59:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/1 "2012-03-16T16:59:43Z")
I have a copy of some medical transcripts that I’m trying to understand. I’ve got most of the \*x abbreviations figured out – Dx, Rx, Sx, Hx, etc.
But I haven’t figured out or found out what “bx” means, and I haven’t managed to find it on-line either. Anybody know?
When I take a closer look again, there might be a few others I don’t know also.
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### Author:  [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/2 "2012-03-16T17:03:17Z")
Bx is for biopsy.
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### Author:  [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/3 "2012-03-16T17:31:10Z")
To fill out your list, diagnosis, prescription, symptoms, history.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/4 "2012-03-16T17:37:46Z")
> [@rock\_party](#):
>
> Bx is for biopsy.
> [@Sudden\_Kestrel](#):
>
> To fill out your list, diagnosis, prescription, symptoms, history.
Thank you both. I think there’s also Px for Prognosis.
And I vaguely think I remember seeing Ox somewhere. What is that?
bx for biopsy seems like an odd usage in my case – it was a psychological evaluation. Could it also be used for other kinds of evaluation like that, in that context? I didn’t notice if they actually took any brain samples 😛
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### Author:  [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/5 "2012-03-16T22:44:50Z")
And where does Rx for Prescription come from? All the others make sense (Symptoms begins with S etc.).
And where does the “x” come from at all???
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### Author:  [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/6 "2012-03-16T22:54:11Z")
I’d guess in that context it was being used for “behavior.”
“The Master” on where [Rx comes from."](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1641/what-does-the-pharmacists-symbol-rx-mean)
> [@](#):
>
> The simple, quick answer–but not the only (or most romantic) one–is that Rx is an abbreviation for the Latin word “recipere” or “recipe,” which means “Take, thou.” In the days before manufactured drugs, apothecaries (who were also doctors) would write out a formula for medications. They would mix up and compound ingredients to make drugs or remedies. …
>
> … Other abbreviations with "x"s are used by medical people too; sx = signs and symptoms, tx = treatment or transplant, hx = history, and dx = diagnosis. But Rx isn’t just a normal R and x. It’s a symbol (not available in the ASCII list) of an italic R with a leg that hangs down below the line with an X line through it. This brings me to theory number two, from the book Devils, Drugs, and Doctors, written in 1931: “Rx is not, as is frequently supposed, an abbreviation of a Latin word meaning recipe or compound, but is an invocation to Jupiter, a prayer for his aid to make the treatment effective…sometimes in old medical manuscripts all the R’s occurring in the text were crossed.” In other words, the Rx symbol was a corruption of the ancient symbol for the Roman god Jupiter. If you’re an astrology fan, you know this symbol which has a very similar crossed leg at the bottom right.
>
> Nonsense, says Phil Griego, owner of a local pharmacy called “Phil’s Pills.” He should know. I called him because he has the Rx symbol incorporated into his store logo. He says the R probably came from “recipe” but the pharmaceutical symbol used to be an EYE with an “x” below it instead of the “R,” and was called the “Eye of Horus.” According to Phil, the Egyptian god Horus was the “father of pharmacy.” As soon as he said it, I remembered seeing a farmacia in Juarez, Mexico with the eyeball/x picture in its logo.
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### Author:  [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2012, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/7 "2012-03-17T00:37:50Z")
depending on context, bx can be behavior or biopsy. I’ve never seen Ox personally, but it might mean oxygen, perhaps. Can you post the sentence that it is in?
I was told the x was just a quick substitution for the rest of the word. Rxn for reaction is a favorite of mine.
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### Author:  [@GythaOgg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GythaOgg)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2012, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/8 "2012-03-17T03:18:49Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#):
>
> depending on context, bx can be behavior or biopsy. I’ve never seen Ox personally, but it might mean oxygen, perhaps. Can you post the sentence that it is in?
>
> I was told the x was just a quick substitution for the rest of the word. Rxn for reaction is a favorite of mine.
Oxygen itself would be O2 in most medical abbreviations, unless someone was talking about a measurement called a ‘pulse ox’, short for pulse oximetry, which is a way of measuring the oxygen level in the blood. The result of pulse ox testing would be called an O2 sat or a ‘sat’ (short for ‘saturation’)
That being said, it’s not unusual for a lot of folks in the medical field to use non-standard abbreviations. It’s not encouraged, but it happens fairly often.
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### Author:  [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2012, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/9 "2012-03-17T03:31:27Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> I think there’s also Px for Prognosis.
In my experience Px is used exclusively to indicate the physical examination. Indeed, it almost invariably is used in tandem with Hx as in “Hx & Px”, i.e. history and physical.
Here’s another one with ‘x’:
DDx = [differential diagnosis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_diagnosis)
And, at least where I work, Tx is used to denote a transfusion. YMMV.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2012, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/10 "2012-03-17T03:45:10Z")
> [@Cub\_Mistress](#):
>
> depending on context, bx can be behavior or biopsy. I’ve never seen Ox personally, but it might mean oxygen, perhaps. Can you post the sentence that it is in?
It was a psych exam, so bx for behavior might make sense.
Sorry, can’t give an example of Ox. I think I saw it. But it was a long time ago, and I’m vague on that.
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### Author:  [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/11 "2012-03-19T03:22:01Z")
Just thought of something else. AAOX4 (or 3, 2 or 1)with various spacing miight be what you remember. It stand for Awake, alert, and oriented as to person place time and situation.These are usually lost in reverse order, i.e. people might know who they are and where thy are but not the date or what is going on. Just throwing out a possibility there.
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### Author:  [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)
#### Post date: [March 19, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/12 "2012-03-19T14:30:37Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> And I vaguely think I remember seeing Ox somewhere. What is that?
Oxtail soup. Supposedly a cure-all.
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### Author:  [@PsyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyGuy)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2017, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/13 "2017-12-08T14:41:49Z")
Bx means “behavior” in the psychology field.
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### Author:  [@PsyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PsyGuy)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2017, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/14 "2017-12-08T14:44:59Z")
Px can also be used to abbreviate the word “psychology”.
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### Author:  [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/15 "2017-12-08T15:32:14Z")
And Zx is for zombie.
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### Author:  [@Grither](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grither)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2017, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-medical-abbreviation-bx-mean/615979/16 "2017-12-08T16:05:48Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> Thank you both. I think there’s also Px for Prognosis.
> And I vaguely think I remember seeing Ox somewhere. What is that?
>
> bx for biopsy seems like an odd usage in my case – it was a psychological evaluation. Could it also be used for other kinds of evaluation like that, in that context? I didn’t notice if they actually took any brain samples 😛
In behavioral health, Bx can stand for “behavior.”