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C566272 is Townes-Brocks-Branchiootorenal-Like Syndrome. Looking on the mesh browser this term has a frequency of 0 meaning it's never tagged a medline topic.

We're currently using the following PubMed search: Townes-Brocks-Branchiootorenal-Like Syndrome [MeSH Terms:noexp], which returns 117,315 results and has the message:

The following term was not found in PubMed: Townes-Brocks-Branchiootorenal-Like

Note now this doesn't include "Syndrome". So I think what's happening is that PubMed isn't finding the entire search term and is falling back to just searching Syndrome [MeSH Terms:noexp], which is matching 117,315 records.

So we probably have to quote the search term.

Hello,

I am unsure about the denominator in the formula referenced below. Should expected not be equal to the product of the two frequencies of occurrence ? In that case, wouldn't the denominator be equal to the square of total_pmids ? It may be splitting hairs and not make a large difference overall, but I'd like to understand the maths behind the code a little more.

Thanks,
Lars

Based on the MEDLINE online training docs, it sounds like MEDLINE assigns MeSH supplemental concept records (SCRs) to citations:

1-benzylpiperazine is a supplementary chemical concept. It is mapped to the MeSH descriptor PIPERAZINES. That means that the article indexed with 1-benzylpiperazine will appear in PubMed under both 1-benzylpiperazine and PIPERAZINES. The indexer needs ONLY to index the SCR; the Heading Mapped to is added automatically.

The indexing of SCR terms is identical to the indexing of MeSH descriptors. In the IMS Browser, they appear in the scroll-down list alphabetically along with MeSH descriptors. The indexer can search the MeSH browser for complex SCR terms in the same manner as for complex MeSH terms. The Pharmacological Action of the SCR term must be added, if appropriate.

The MeSH browser for 1-benzylpiperazine shows a frequency of 57, leading me to believe it is actually assigned as a topic in MEDLINE.

But searching pubmed for "1-benzylpiperazine" [MeSH Terms:noexp] returns zero results and the message:

Your search was processed without automatic term mapping because it retrieved zero results.

So is there a way to search PubMed for MeSH SCRs?