FIELD E ; Pathology Code 



Columns 18, 19, 20, 21, 



22, 23, 24, and 25 



It is possible that, for effective coding treatment of non-infectious pathology, in a program 

 dealing intensively or exhaustively with data from laboratory and clinical drug trials, a more elaborate 

 pattern would be necessary. This might conceivably become comparable to the present CBCC handling 

 of chemical structures, whereby a separate and special Code Sheet would be used for a given named 

 pathology, an entire IBM punched card devoted to the pathology's complete description, and the identity 

 of the pathology made on the general Biology Code Sheet only by a reference number comparable to the 

 CBCC Chemical Serial Number. In any case, it would seem unlikely that the retrieval and correlation 

 of information about responses of diseases to chemicals could be accomplished satisfactorily except 

 by persons with some specific experience with the field of pathology and its nomenclature. 



SECTION II: 



CODE SYMBOLS FOR PATHOLOGY; 



INFORMATION CODED IN FIELD E ABOUT 



A SPECIFIC NON-INFECTIOUS PATHOLOGY 



1. Symbols for NON-INFECTIOUS diseases; Part I of the pathology symbol (1st unit, Column 18) 



Inasmuch as non-infectious pathologies are coded in the same field as any test organism or 

 tumor may be coded, it is necessary that the Pathology Code symbol for non-infectious diseases be 

 distinguished from symbols of the Taxonomy Code and the Tumor Code. For this purpose, the first of 

 the eight units of the total non-infectious pathology symbol is always Symbol T. As a result, only 

 seven units (i. e. , seven IBM punched card columns) are actually available for symbols distinguishing 

 pathologies of a non-infectious nature. 



2. Symbols for INFECTIOUS diseases included in the Pathology Code list 



When a pathology is caused by an organism (e.g. , an invading bacterium, fungus, protozoan, or 

 other parasite), that pathology is coded by using the symbol for the test organism taken from the 

 Taxonomy Code list. Therefore, Symbol T, as the first unit of a symbol in Field E, signifies only 

 disease of a non-infectious nature, as opposed to infectious diseases and tumors. 



In the case of infectious diseases, there is no question about designating in Field E a coded 

 anatomical association, since the entire coding area is occupied with the etiological identification. 

 The disadvantage afforded by this is minimal, since, in the case of most infectious diseases, the 

 anatomical designation would be the non-specific "body as a whole". However, in the case of certain 

 infectious diseases or a given instance of any infectious disease, it is important to be able to provide 

 critical identification by naming the site of infection. By the CBCC coding pattern, this can only be 

 done by utilizing Field H as well as Field E. Thus, any infectious disease whose identity demands 

 not only identification of the etiology as the organism in Field E, but identification of the anatomical 

 site, is listed in the Pathology Code with the taxonomic symbol for the organism and the anatomical 

 symbol for the site which must be coded in Field H (in Field H-l, if the site is identical to the specific 

 organ responding, or in Field H-2, if it is not identical to the specific organ responding). 



3. Part II of the non-infectious pathology symbol (2nd, 3rd, and 4th units, Columns 19, 20, and 

 21); the anatomical structures affected by the disease 



Conventional pathology nomenclature, especially that for non-infectious pathologies, is based 

 primarily on affected anatomy (i. e. , site of the pathology). Therefore, pathologies are assigned code 

 symbols according to an anatomical classification. 



As pointed out previously, the anatomical site of an infectious pathology can never be indicated 

 in Field E, because all eight IBM columns are occupied with the Taxonomy Code symbol of the infectious 

 organism. The site of the infection can only be coded in Field H. For CBCC purposes, this coding is 

 considered to be essentially adequate for distinguishing from each other all infectious diseases. 



For non- infectious diseases, Field H is available for indicating the site of the pathology, just 

 as for infectious diseases. However, a greater facility is offered by embodying the anatomical 



40 



