medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

, describing a

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

as acute denotes that it is of short duration and, as a

corollary In mathematics and logic, a corollary ( , ) is a theorem of less importance which can be readily deduced from a previous, more notable statement. A corollary could, for instance, be a proposition which is incidentally proved while proving another ...

of that, of recent

onset Onset may refer to: * Onset (audio), the beginning of a musical note or sound * Onset, Massachusetts, village in the United States **Onset Island (Massachusetts), a small island located at the western end of the Cape Cod Canal * Interonset interva ...

. The quantification of how much time constitutes "short" and "recent" varies by disease and by context, but the core denotation of "acute" is always qualitatively in contrast with " chronic", which denotes long-lasting disease (for example, in acute leukaemia and

chronic leukaemia Chronic leukemia is an increase of abnormal white blood cells. It differs from acute leukemia, and is categorized as myelogenous or lymphocytic. Chronic leukemia may refer to: * Chronic myelogenous leukemia * Chronic lymphocytic leukemia * Hairy ce ...

). In addition, "acute" also often connotes two other meanings:

sudden James Green aka "Sudden" is a fictional character created by an English author Oliver Strange in the early 1930s as the hero of a series, originally published by George Newnes Books Ltd, set in the American Wild West era. Oliver Strange died i ...

onset and

severity Severity or Severely may refer to: * ''Severity'' (video game), a canceled video game * "Severely" (song), by South Korean band F.T. Island See also

* * {{disambig ...

, such as in

acute myocardial infarction A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may t ...

(AMI), where suddenness and severity are both established aspects of the meaning. It thus often connotes that the condition is

fulminant Fulminant () is a medical descriptor for any event or process that occurs suddenly and escalates quickly, and is intense and severe to the point of lethality, i.e., it has an explosive character. The word comes from Latin ''fulmināre'', to stri ...

(as in the AMI example), but not always (as in acute

rhinitis Rhinitis, also known as coryza, is irritation and inflammation of the mucous membrane inside the nose. Common symptoms are a stuffy nose, runny nose, sneezing, and post-nasal drip. The inflammation is caused by viruses, bacteria, irrita ...

, which is usually

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...

ous with the

common cold The common cold or the cold is a viral infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract that primarily affects the respiratory mucosa of the nose, throat, sinuses, and larynx. Signs and symptoms may appear fewer than two days after expos ...

). The one thing that acute MI and acute rhinitis have in common is that they are not chronic. They can happen again (as in recurrent

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severit ...

, that is, multiple acute pneumonia episodes), but they are not the same

case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to ca ...

ongoing for months or years (unlike

chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of progressive lung disease characterized by long-term respiratory symptoms and airflow limitation. The main symptoms include shortness of breath and a cough, which may or may not produce ...

, which is). In the context of the

mass noun In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elemen ...

"acute disease," it refers to the acute phase (that is, a short course) of any disease entity. For example, in an article on ulcerative

enteritis Enteritis is inflammation of the small intestine. It is most commonly caused by food or drink contaminated with pathogenic microbes,Dugdale, David C., IIII, and George F Longretc"Enteritis" MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia, 18 October 2008. Access ...

poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, qu ...

, the author says, "in acute disease there may be increased mortality without any obvious signs", referring to the acute form or phase of ulcerative enteritis.

Meaning variations

A mild

stubbed toe Toes are the digits (fingers) of the foot of a tetrapod. Animal species such as cats that walk on their toes are described as being ''digitigrade''. Humans, and other animals that walk on the soles of their feet, are described as being ''plan ...

is an acute injury. Similarly, many

acute upper respiratory infections An upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) is an illness caused by an acute infection, which involves the upper respiratory tract, including the nose, sinuses, pharynx, larynx or trachea. This commonly includes nasal obstruction, sore throat, to ...

and

acute gastroenteritis Gastroenteritis, also known as infectious diarrhea and gastro, is an inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract including the stomach and intestine. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Fever, lack of energy, and dehydrat ...

cases in adults are mild and usually resolve within a few days or weeks. The term "acute" is also included in the definition of several diseases, such as

severe acute respiratory syndrome Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS coronavirus species, ''sev ...

, acute leukaemia,

, and acute hepatitis. This is often to distinguish diseases from their chronic forms, such as

, or to highlight the sudden onset of the disease, such as acute myocardial infarct.

Related terminology

Related terms include:

Acute care

Acute care Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a severe injury or episode of illness, an urgent medical condition, or during recovery from surgery.Alberta Health ServicesAcute care.Acc ...

is the early and specialist management of adult patients who have a wide range of medical conditions requiring urgent or

emergency An emergency is an urgent, unexpected, and usually dangerous situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment and requires immediate action. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening ...

care usually within 48 hours of admission or referral from other specialties. Acute hospitals are those intended for short-term medical and/or surgical treatment and care. The related

medical speciality A medical specialty is a branch of medical practice that is focused on a defined group of patients, diseases, skills, or philosophy. Examples include those branches of medicine that deal exclusively with children (paediatrics), cancer (oncology), ...

acute medicine Acute medicine is a specialty within internal medicine concerned with the immediate and early specialist management of adult patients with a wide range of medical conditions who present in hospital as emergencies. It developed in the United Kingdo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Acute (Medicine) Medical terminology Pain Human diseases and disorders