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Jean Spencer Felton, MD
University of Southern California School of Medicine Los Angeles

JAMA. 1980;244(15):1674.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.—

In recent interchanges with several attorneys wherein various x-ray films were involved, an interesting difference in understanding emerged.

On receiving a report of a radiological study, or on hearing of the interpretation of the films by a radiologist during a deposition or the giving of testimony, certain of the attorneys expressed their belief that the term "negative," commonly used by physicians as a succinct conclusion following a review of the examination results, actually meant "positive." "Negative" was viewed in the sense of being wrong, or bad, or unusual, or abnormal. "Positive" bore the meaning of good or normal, not connoting the medical understanding of "not demonstrating or proving the presence or existence of symptoms, bacteria, etc."¹

Such antithetical understanding can, and does, prove difficult and leads to unnecessary clarification. It is suggested that the use of "negative" and "positive" be abandoned in this sense and that . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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