Use the MeSH Online Thesaurus in MEDLINE®?

TOPIC: Descriptors are subject index terms and phrases assigned to records to characterize the substantive content of the original document. Records in MEDLINE (File 154) are indexed using the National Library of Medicine’s controlled vocabulary Medical Subject Headings (MeSH®). MeSH descriptors are revised annually, and all MEDLINE records are updated yearly with these changes. There are 10-15 descriptors per record to characterize accurately the content of the original document. MeSH descriptors are often plural rather than singular, and may be inverted (e.g., ABNORMALITIES, DRUG-INDUCED). Descriptors are indexed as complete phrases and also by the individual words. All assigned descriptors are searched when the /DE suffix is used. In addition, each MeSH term has one or more descriptor code numbers (MeSH Tree Numbers) searchable as DC=. For details and search aids on using MeSH click here.

EMBASE® (File72) uses a thesaurus called EMTREE, which includes medical terms, drug names, acronyms, MeSH® subject headings and spelling variations. For details and search aids on using EMTREE click here.

In this example, you will use the MeSH online thesaurus in MEDLINE to find articles about osteoarthritis treatment related to the hip.

COMMAND SUMMARY

BEGIN 154
EXPAND OSTEOARTHRITIS
EXPAND E3
SELECT R9
TYPE S1/8/1-5
TYPE S1/9/1

HOW TO...

1. BEGIN File 154 to search MEDLINE. 2. EXPAND the term. Notice the addition of the third column, Related Terms (RT). Osteoarthritis has 10 related terms. Observe that the EXPANDed list also shows allowable subheadings for the EXPANDed term. See How Do I Link Descriptor Terms to Subheadings? for details.
3. EXPAND the E reference number that indicates related terms are available. MeSH shows that Osteoarthritis is the preferred term. Note that it has a Descriptor Code (DC=) in R2. It also has broader (B) and narrower terms (N). X means the term has a cross-reference. 4. SELECT R9, which seems to be right on target for our search query. Note: You can EXPAND the R number to see the preferred term of the cross-reference. Some tables show Related Terms (R), not seen in this example.
5. TYPE a few records in Format 8 to see titles (/TI), descriptors (/DE) and publication years (PY=). To select the appropriate record number, look at the range of records in the TYPE command (e.g., 1/8/1).
6. Choose the record(s) you want to view and TYPE using Format 7 for the Long format (Bibliographic Citation and Abstract). The record chosen is record 1.

RELATED HOW DO I...? SOLUTIONS

• Link Descriptor terms to subheadings?
• Find conference papers?
• Find a conference location?
• Find a trade name manufacturer?
• Find cited references on a biomedical subject?
• Use the MeSH or EMTREE Explode feature?

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Stock #: 53406; Last modified: 14 Sep 2011

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