that's an easy one. i use that term all of the time. r/o means "rule out". the doctor is considering a certain diagnosis and may not be sure or currently does not have sufficient data to make a definitive diagnosis so he/she will use the abbreviation r/o to indicate that this is a tentative or provisional diagnosis that will be ruled-out (or not).
what is the medical abbreviations r/o mean? . my husband was diagonosed r/o p. t. s. d. we know what p. t. s. d. stands for but what about r/o?