Guidelines for transcribing numbers

There are two types of numerals, Arabic and Roman, which are used in medical transcription . Numbers denote quantities, ages, time and position in a series.

Arabic numerals are in all 10, which are 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.

Roman numerals are made of 7 letters, given below:
I 1
V 5
X 10
L 50
C 100
O 500
K 1000

Roman numerals are used to a lesser extent in transcription usually in staging of diseases, syndromes or the most common statement, for example: Cranial nerves II through XII are normal, Stage I disease.

Arabic numerals are widely used in transcription to denote ages, units of measure, dosages, vitals, lab values, and dimensions.

For example:

Hemoglobin was 14.4, platelet count was 156,000, a 45-year-old male was seen today.

If a sentence begins with a number, the number has to be spelled out and/or if needed rephrase the sentence.

For example:

"Twenty-two years ago, the patient had her last menstrual period." Or one can rephrase the sentence as "The patient had her last menstrual period 34 years ago."

Numbers used to represent position in a series are called ordinal numbers.

Ordinals from (1st) first to ninth (9th) are spelled out in report while ordinals greater than 9th are transcribed in figures like 12th, 21st. No periods or space is used with ordinals.

For example:

The patient underwent his fourth cesarean section without any complications.
The obese female met with a severe accident on her 50th birthday.

Use of commas in Arabic numbers:
When a whole number has 5 or more digits, a comma should be sued to separate a group of 3 numerals, starting from the end of the number.

For example:

White blood cell count was 45,700, platelet count was 290,000.

However, if the whole number comprises of 4 digits only, a comma should not be used.

For example:

White count is 6400.

When two sets of interrelated numbers are used next to each other, generally the one dictated earlier should be spelled out one or rather any one of them can be spelled out depending on convenience.

For example:

The subjects used for the experiment were fifteen 7-year-old boys.
The laceration was sutured with two 2-0 Vicryl sutures.

Use of hyphens in numbers:
Always hyphenate compound numbers from 21 through 99.

For example:

fifty-five, sixty-six, eleven thousand five hundred forty-six

Always Hyphenate compound nouns which use numbers are prefix.

For example:

2-D echocardiogram

When numbers are used as compound modifiers with words, they should be hyphenated when they precede the noun.

For example:
An 18-day cycle, a 3-cm incision

Forming Plurals in numbers:
To form plurals, apostrophe "s"is used with single digit number and lower cased s is used with 2 or more than 2 i.e. multiple digit number.

For example:
He died in his 50s. The patient was born in 1950s.
He required atleast four 6’s to reach to his century.

Numbers used in proper nouns are transcribed the way they are used in the proper noun.

For example:

figure-of-eight suture and not figure of 8 suture.