LOINC Release Notes, September 2023 (Version 2.76)

This section last updated: 2024-02-29 (2 months ago)

LOINC version 2.76 is a Hotfix release only. No new concepts have been added.

This Hotfix addresses issues discovered after the release of version 2.75 in August. Version 2.76 includes updates to 196 concepts. Most changes fall in these categories:

• Syntax corrections:
  • Updated Method, Scale and/or Property for panel terms
  • Changed Method from * to NULL
  • Changed Scale to SemiQuant for new Titer terms
  • Updated Unknown System to XXX
• Removed Method, System, or Property from Component, e.g. 24Hr Urine
• Improved Component descriptions
• Added DNA/RNA to test names where applicable
• Five concepts were deprecated as they became duplicates once the aforementioned changes were made

The LOINC Difference Report, located in the download’s AccessoryFiles folder, details all changes from version 2.75 to 2.76. The ChangeSnapshot file has the list of deprecated concepts. Their replacements are provided in the MapTo.csv file.

We encourage you to view the release notes for version 2.75, the version this hotfix builds upon.

Accessory file updates

In addition to the DifferenceReport and ChangeSnapshot, the following Accessory Files have been updated to reflect content changes.

• AnswerFile
• ComponentHierarchyBySystem
• GroupFile
• PanelsAndForms
• PartFile

Additionally, RELMA has been updated to version 7.9 to reflect the concept changes.

LOINC Terminology Service using HL7® FHIR®

The terminology service at fhir.loinc.org (documentation) has been updated with all changes in version 2.76. While this service supports previous versions of CodeSystem, ValueSet, and ConceptMap resources, we caution against making requests of version 2.75. A subsequent update may remove this version completely from the service.

Updated translations

Version 2.75 did not contain procedurally-generated translations for concepts which were updated for the semi-quantitative and respiratory system specimen transitions. We took the opportunity afforded by this Hotfix to engage with our translators to provide translations for those updates, including those terms back into their translations.

The following linguistic variants were updated with this release:

• es_ES Spanish (SPAIN)
• fr_CA French (CANADA)
• fr_FR French (FRANCE)
• it_IT Italian (ITALY)
• nl_NL Dutch (NETHERLANDS)
• pl_PL Polish (POLAND)
• zh_CN Chinese (CHINA)