Monday, February 18, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Graft Restenosis
OK, now I swear yesterday, when I typed "graft restenosis" into the MeSH database, I got no results. Today, I typed it in, and I got one of the two relevant MeSH terms (Graft Occlusion, Vascular). Grr! Well, I've started this post anyway, so here goes.
I was asked to do a search for "coronary artery bypass graft re-stenosis". Here is my final search strategy:
"Coronary Artery Bypass"[MeSH]
AND
"Graft Occlusion, Vascular"[Mesh] OR "Coronary Restenosis"[Mesh]
plus some other stuff unique to this question. The point of posting this is that "Coronary Restenosis" is a synonym of "Graft Occlusion, Vascular", at least for the purposes of this search, but is not as readily found in the MeSH database.
I was asked to do a search for "coronary artery bypass graft re-stenosis". Here is my final search strategy:
"Coronary Artery Bypass"[MeSH]
AND
"Graft Occlusion, Vascular"[Mesh] OR "Coronary Restenosis"[Mesh]
plus some other stuff unique to this question. The point of posting this is that "Coronary Restenosis" is a synonym of "Graft Occlusion, Vascular", at least for the purposes of this search, but is not as readily found in the MeSH database.
Friday, December 14, 2012
Reason #6000 that I hate the PubMed sidebar
OK, what on earth has happened to the Languages filter in the PubMed sidebar? Over the last week or so, it is no longer one of the default filters - instead you have to select it from the Show additional filters list. Like I have that kind of time!
I think this ranks even higher than my previous complaint about each click on the sidebar corresponding to a single line in the history. This is annoying because if you have to select a whole bunch of publication types, each one takes up a whole line in the search history, and if you're doing a long search, if you get beyond 100 lines in your search history, the first search lines start disappearing. So each line in the history is precious!
However, there is a fairly easy fix for that - just make your own copy-and-paste search strategies for PubMed. Here are some of mine:
It's annoying to have to copy and paste in the canned strategies, yes. But the thing that makes the Languages filter problem so much worse is that it's really a no-brainer. Did someone click the wrong button, or what?
I think this ranks even higher than my previous complaint about each click on the sidebar corresponding to a single line in the history. This is annoying because if you have to select a whole bunch of publication types, each one takes up a whole line in the search history, and if you're doing a long search, if you get beyond 100 lines in your search history, the first search lines start disappearing. So each line in the history is precious!
However, there is a fairly easy fix for that - just make your own copy-and-paste search strategies for PubMed. Here are some of mine:
Reviews
& Guidelines
Review[ptyp] OR systematic[sb] OR Guideline[ptyp]
Guidelines
Guideline[ptyp] OR "Consensus Development Conference"[ptyp]
All types
of studies including case reports:
"Study Characteristics"[ptyp]
Trials
and Studies – no case reports
"Clinical Trial"[ptyp] OR "Comparative
Study"[ptyp] OR "Evaluation Studies"[ptyp] OR
"Meta-Analysis"[ptyp] OR "Twin Study"[ptyp] OR
"Validation Studies"[ptyp]
It's annoying to have to copy and paste in the canned strategies, yes. But the thing that makes the Languages filter problem so much worse is that it's really a no-brainer. Did someone click the wrong button, or what?
Monday, December 3, 2012
Nonalcoholic beer
"near beer"[all fields] OR "non alcoholic beer"[all fields] OR "nonalcoholic beer"[all fields] OR "no alcohol beer"[all fields] OR "low alcohol beer"[all fields]
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Rehabilitation of Speech and Language Disorders
Came across a weird one today! There's a MeSH called Rehabilitation of Speech and Language Disorders that I came across in the Mesh Database:
It's been around since 1998, so for quite a while. Looks like it could be really useful for questions from Speech Language Pathologists.
However, when I typed it into Ovid, with quotes around the phrase because of the "and", it doesn't map to the MeSH term!
You can see the phrase I typed in at the bottom of the screenshot. I tried it three times so I'm pretty sure I didn't make a typo.
Yet, if I search for the broader term, Rehabilitation, and then select the term Rehabilitation of Speech and Language Disorders from the tree, it is available.
I wonder if the failure to map is due to the fact that no article has been given this particular MeSH. Strange, eh? There are lots of results if you explode this MeSH, but not a single article has ever been labelled with this particular MeSH.
However, when I typed it into Ovid, with quotes around the phrase because of the "and", it doesn't map to the MeSH term!
Yet, if I search for the broader term, Rehabilitation, and then select the term Rehabilitation of Speech and Language Disorders from the tree, it is available.
Friday, August 31, 2012
When a healthcare professional says natural history...
When a healthcare professional says the words "natural history", they don't mean the textbook definition. Usually Natural History refers to a field of study which scientists pursued back in the 1800s, exploring the natural world. Eventually this became biology and geology.
However, when a healthcare professional refers to the natural history of a disease, they mean what the disease looks like over time, especially if untreated.
If you're really lucky, you can search "natural history"[all fields] and combine it with the MeSH best describing your disease. You might get one or two results.
If you search "Natural History"[Mesh], you'll get the official definition, which is of no use whatsoever.
You can try "Prognosis"[Mesh], which will almost certainly give results when combined with the MeSH for your disease. However, since "Treatment Outcome"[MeSH] is a narrower term of "Prognosis"[Mesh], you may wish not to explode: "Prognosis"[Mesh:NoExp].
The best MeSH for this concept is "Disease Progression"[Mesh], a very useful-sounding MeSH that one can only find by stumbling across it by accident. Again, if you're lucky, combining this MeSH with your disease MeSH will produce a couple of results. However, "Disease Progression" is one of what I call the "Weird MeSH" - that is, highly useful but often overlooked by indexers and searchers alike.
In some cases, "Watchful Waiting"[Mesh] OR "Conservative Treatment"[Mesh] can be useful. Conservative Treatment was added as a MeSH in 2017, and will likely be a "Weird MeSH", so keywording can also be useful: conservative*[tiab] OR nonsurg*[tiab] OR non-surg*[tiab] OR nonoperati*[tiab] OR non-operati*[tiab]
Sometimes "Survival Rate"[Mesh] OR "Disease-Free Survival"[Mesh] are useful too.
In PubMed, the following keywords may be useful:
prognosis[tiab] OR outcome*[tiab] OR "natural history"[tiab] OR "disease progression"[tiab] OR "disease course"[tiab] OR "disease evolution"[tiab] OR "disease trajectory"[tiab] OR "clinical progression"[tiab] OR "clinical course"[tiab] OR "clinical evolution"[tiab] OR "clinical trajectory"[tiab] OR "natural progression"[tiab] OR "natural course"[tiab] OR "natural evolution"[tiab] OR "course trajectory"[tiab] OR "benign neglect"[tiab]
If all else fails, you can try a full text search where available.
Medline EBSCO:
TX "natural history" AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX disease N3 progress* AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX clinical progress* AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX natural course AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX natural evolution AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX course trajector* AND MH "Disease Name+"
Google scholar:
"disease name" "natural history"
EMBASE:
disease course/ or exp deterioration/ or exp disease clearance/ or exp disease duration/ or exp disease exacerbation/ or exp general condition deterioration/ or exp general condition improvement/ or exp illness trajectory/ or exp prognosis/ or exp recurrent disease/ or exp reinfection/ or exp relapse/ or exp remission/ or exp survival/
if it's a cancer thing:
exp cancer growth/ or exp cancer inhibition/ or exp cancer recurrence/ or exp cancer regression/ or exp leukemia relapse/ or exp leukemia remission/ or exp metastasis inhibition/ or exp tumor growth/ or exp tumor recurrence/ or exp tumor regression/
PsycInfo:
DE "Disease Course" OR DE "Prognosis"
Keywords for a title and abstract search:
prognosis OR outcome* OR natural history OR disease course OR clinical progression OR clinical course OR clinical evolution OR clinical trajectory OR natural progression OR natural course OR natural evolution OR course trajectory OR benign neglect
disease N3 progress*
disease N3 evolution*
disease N3 trajectory
Entry term is "course of illness"
Narrower term of "Disease Course" is Metastasis.
However, when a healthcare professional refers to the natural history of a disease, they mean what the disease looks like over time, especially if untreated.
If you're really lucky, you can search "natural history"[all fields] and combine it with the MeSH best describing your disease. You might get one or two results.
If you search "Natural History"[Mesh], you'll get the official definition, which is of no use whatsoever.
You can try "Prognosis"[Mesh], which will almost certainly give results when combined with the MeSH for your disease. However, since "Treatment Outcome"[MeSH] is a narrower term of "Prognosis"[Mesh], you may wish not to explode: "Prognosis"[Mesh:NoExp].
The best MeSH for this concept is "Disease Progression"[Mesh], a very useful-sounding MeSH that one can only find by stumbling across it by accident. Again, if you're lucky, combining this MeSH with your disease MeSH will produce a couple of results. However, "Disease Progression" is one of what I call the "Weird MeSH" - that is, highly useful but often overlooked by indexers and searchers alike.
In some cases, "Watchful Waiting"[Mesh] OR "Conservative Treatment"[Mesh] can be useful. Conservative Treatment was added as a MeSH in 2017, and will likely be a "Weird MeSH", so keywording can also be useful: conservative*[tiab] OR nonsurg*[tiab] OR non-surg*[tiab] OR nonoperati*[tiab] OR non-operati*[tiab]
Sometimes "Survival Rate"[Mesh] OR "Disease-Free Survival"[Mesh] are useful too.
In PubMed, the following keywords may be useful:
prognosis[tiab] OR outcome*[tiab] OR "natural history"[tiab] OR "disease progression"[tiab] OR "disease course"[tiab] OR "disease evolution"[tiab] OR "disease trajectory"[tiab] OR "clinical progression"[tiab] OR "clinical course"[tiab] OR "clinical evolution"[tiab] OR "clinical trajectory"[tiab] OR "natural progression"[tiab] OR "natural course"[tiab] OR "natural evolution"[tiab] OR "course trajectory"[tiab] OR "benign neglect"[tiab]
If all else fails, you can try a full text search where available.
Medline EBSCO:
TX "natural history" AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX disease N3 progress* AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX clinical progress* AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX natural course AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX natural evolution AND MH "Disease Name+"
TX course trajector* AND MH "Disease Name+"
Google scholar:
"disease name" "natural history"
EMBASE:
disease course/ or exp deterioration/ or exp disease clearance/ or exp disease duration/ or exp disease exacerbation/ or exp general condition deterioration/ or exp general condition improvement/ or exp illness trajectory/ or exp prognosis/ or exp recurrent disease/ or exp reinfection/ or exp relapse/ or exp remission/ or exp survival/
if it's a cancer thing:
exp cancer growth/ or exp cancer inhibition/ or exp cancer recurrence/ or exp cancer regression/ or exp leukemia relapse/ or exp leukemia remission/ or exp metastasis inhibition/ or exp tumor growth/ or exp tumor recurrence/ or exp tumor regression/
PsycInfo:
DE "Disease Course" OR DE "Prognosis"
Keywords for a title and abstract search:
prognosis OR outcome* OR natural history OR disease course OR clinical progression OR clinical course OR clinical evolution OR clinical trajectory OR natural progression OR natural course OR natural evolution OR course trajectory OR benign neglect
disease N3 progress*
disease N3 evolution*
disease N3 trajectory
Entry term is "course of illness"
Narrower term of "Disease Course" is Metastasis.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Chronic Pain finally gets its own MeSH
The wait is over! There is now a MeSH for Chronic Pain.
Of course, it's only been applied to articles added after the MeSH term was created (sometime in 2012), but at least in future articles on this topic will receive proper indexing.
And there was much rejoicing...
New search strategy for Chronic Pain in Medline:
"Chronic Pain"[Mesh]
OR
"Pain"[Mesh] AND chronic[all fields]
Of course, it's only been applied to articles added after the MeSH term was created (sometime in 2012), but at least in future articles on this topic will receive proper indexing.
And there was much rejoicing...
New search strategy for Chronic Pain in Medline:
"Chronic Pain"[Mesh]
OR
"Pain"[Mesh] AND chronic[all fields]
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