I went to see the cardiologist yesterday - this is a new medical relationship for me, first time I ever saw this kind of doc for me (my wife met her first cardiologist in December, yet another activity that we're sharing as we go along). Her staff ran an EKG, and, after looking at the results, her preliminary hypothesis (not yet diagnosis - more info needed) is, she said, "PVC." Of course, I thought, "omigod, I've got plastic?" But, since my primary care doc had proposed the same possibility but spelled it out - premature ventricular contraction - I didn't say that. I'm learning when to shut up, although it's taken me 70 years to start to begin to learn.
Context makes such a difference in the meaning of acronyms.
I guess I should be grateful that the medical phrase is not "premature contraction of the ventricle," for which the acronym would no doubt be "PCV*." I already know I have PCV; my wife mentions regularly fairly frequently that she's positive that I just ventilated my crankcase, though not in those words.
The cardiologist assures me that this is not necessarily a scary thing, but is reserving any further discussion for the results from a couple of tests, including readings from the heart monitor currently glued to my chest.
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*"Positive crankcase ventilation," for any non-automotive types here (are there any non-automotive types here?); one of the first emissions control systems put on cars (and, many years later, on motorcycles) way back, it keeps oil vapors from the engine's operation from being spewed into the atmosphere.