Joseph Tein (asker) May 22, 2019:

Ciao Cedric,

Nice to hear from you ... thanks for commenting. I agree totally that we need to translate the meaning (into its standard English usage) rather than word for word, which can result in nonsense. I'm sure you've seen examples of that, too.

With a verb, it could be "non troviamo" or even "non ci sono." Now that I'm writing this, I think that the "non aspetti" construction is copying the English use of "no" in medical writing ... "no pathological findings" or "no history of..." etc.

And Ciao Gilberto, just saw your comment also. I appreciate it.

Gilberto Lacchia May 22, 2019:

I agree with Cedric As for the translation "No obstructive findings with a histological appearance" it should be remembered that the pathologist only describes what he sees, he cannot state that there are no obstructive findings, but only that the histological appearance does not suggest obstructive findings.

Perhaps "no obstructive-type histological appearance" or something like that is a better choice.

Cedric Randolph May 22, 2019:

histological findings In speaking to your question of how to phrase your translation Joe, often we forget about what ideas are underlying the words. Italian has a reference system that leaves out the subject very often due to its syntactical conventions, as here there isn't even a verb. Here I believe that the idea of 'findings' is in the phrase in its underlying form. I also believe that translating word for word, regardless of what project managers and some clients want can be detrimental to our work and to the function of the translation. To me, there is no doubt that the term 'findings' is present in this phrase's underlying structure. E.g., 'No obstructive findings with a histological appearance,' or something to that effect.