Acute (medicine)

In medicine, describing a disease as acute denotes that it is of recent onset; it occasionally denotes a short duration. 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).

In the context of the mass noun "acute disease", it refers to the acute phase (that is, a short course) of any disease entity.^[1]^[2] For example, in an article on ulcerative enteritis in poultry, the author says, "in acute disease there may be increased mortality without any obvious signs",^[3] referring to the acute form or phase of ulcerative enteritis.

^ Robert F. Schmidt; William D. Willis, eds. (2007). Encyclopedia of pain. Berlin: Springer. p. Acute Pain, Subacute Pain and Chronic Pain (Chapter.). ISBN 978-3-540-29805-2.
^ Kenneth N. Anderson, ed. (1998). Mosby's medical dictionary : illustrated in full colour throughout (5th revised ed.). St. Louis: Mosby. ISBN 0815146310.
^ Pattison, Mark (2008), Poultry Diseases (6th ed.), Saunders/Elsevier, p. 207, ISBN 9780702028625.

[pain2007-1] Robert F. Schmidt; William D. Willis, eds. (2007). Encyclopedia of pain. Berlin: Springer. p. Acute Pain, Subacute Pain and Chronic Pain (Chapter.). ISBN 978-3-540-29805-2.

[Mosby1998-2] Kenneth N. Anderson, ed. (1998). Mosby's medical dictionary : illustrated in full colour throughout (5th revised ed.). St. Louis: Mosby. ISBN 0815146310.

[isbn_9780702028625-3] Pattison, Mark (2008), Poultry Diseases (6th ed.), Saunders/Elsevier, p. 207, ISBN 9780702028625.

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