What does '+ve' or '-ve' mean in a medical context?
+ve
means positive-ve
means negative
Some publishers use these terms instead of just +
and -
to make clear that the + indicates that a certain parameter is positive or negative, to avoid confusing -
with a dash and +
with and.
For example, writing p53-ve
clearly indicates that p53
is negative. What positive or negative actually means depends on the context, e.g. it can mean that p53
is not mutated in a group of patients. See this paper for an example where p53-ve
is used in that way.