Definition

A MedDRA term representing a single medical concept used for analysis, reporting, and signal detection. It is the primary level for regulatory safety analysis.

Example

Both 'heart attack' and 'myocardial infarction' reported verbatim would be coded to the same Preferred Term 'Myocardial infarction' for consistent analysis.

Regulatory source

MedDRA Hierarchy

Common mistakes

Using Lower Level Terms for analysis instead of Preferred Terms, which fragments data and impairs signal detection.

Inspector question

How do you aggregate and analyze safety data at the Preferred Term level? Show me your signal detection queries.

Related terms