Metric units and metric units of measure

   MT Reference Style Guide  >  Medical Transcription Grammar, Usage and Style  >  Measurements and Quantities  >  Metric units and metric units of measure

• 1 Abbreviating metric units of measure
• 2 Capitalizing metric units of measure
• 3 Using hyphens with metric unit expressions
• 4 Using periods with metric unit expressions
• 5 Metric units with exponential expressions
• 6 Metric units expressed in multiplication of values
• 7 Expressing concentrations in metric units

Basic units and properties

The SI is founded in seven base units representing invariable physical measure.

EXCEPTION: The SI symbol for micro continues to be µ; however, this symbol is on the ISMP Dangerous Abbreviations list. When combined with other units, it may be misread. Currently, JCAHO specifies only micrograms and microunits on its list of dangerous use of the symbol and recommends the following use.

mcg NOT µg
microunits NOT µU or mcU ("units" must be spelled out)

All other uses of the micro symbol (µ) are considered acceptable. If available, the symbol should be for those other applications.

Please note the following from Wikipedia SI prefixes and symbols.

Prefixes may not be used in combination. This even applies for mass, for which the SI base unit (which is the kilogram, not the gram) already contains a prefix. So milligram (mg) is used instead of microkilogram (µkg), for example.