出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』「2014/09/25 21:04:09」(JST)
この項目では、生命科学について説明しています。
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MeSH®(メッシュ)は、Medical Subject Headings の頭文字であり、米国国立医学図書館 (NLM) が定める生命科学用語集(シソーラス)である[1][2]。NLMがMEDLINEデータベースにおいて文献を管理する際、文献の内容を表す適切な用語を10〜15個程度文献に付与し、この用語により文献を検索・管理できるようにしているが、このときMeSHの用語を用いる。MeSHは毎年改訂されて新しい概念や語句が追加・修正され、最新の生命科学に対応できるようにしている。
MeSHは、定義語 Descriptors、副表題 Qualifiers (Subheadings)、補足用語 Supplementary Concept Records の3つの基本事項と、それに加えて出版物の種類 Publication Characteristics (Publication Type)、場所 Geographics についての用語を含む[3]。 2005年のMeSHは22,997の定義語、83の副表題、151,000の補足用語を含む[2]。
その他、同義語・類義語をMeSH定義語に誘導するための語句 Entry Terms [6]を136,067個持つ(2005年)。例えば、Tumor(腫瘍)、Cancer(がん)、Neoplasm(新生物)などの語句は、MeSH用語「Neoplasms」に誘導される。
MeSHは階層構造になっており、下位にいくほど厳密な定義語となる。例えば癌腫 Carcinoma は、
の位置にあり、またCarcinomaの下位には、Adenocarcinoma(腺癌)、Carcinoma, Adenosquamous(腺扁平上皮癌)、Carcinoma, Basal Cell(基底細胞癌)などがある。検索に使用する際には、指定したMeSH用語の下位にある用語も検索に使用される。つまり、Carcinomaで検索した場合、その下位にあるAdenocarcinoma(腺癌)、Carcinoma, Adenosquamous(腺扁平上皮癌)、Carcinoma, Basal Cell(基底細胞癌)なども検索に含まれる。
米国国立医学図書館 (NLM) は、その前身の軍医総監局図書館 Library of Surgeon-General's office であった1879年から、Index Medicus という最新医学文献索引集を月刊で発行していた。これは、医学文献をその内容を一番端的に表す表題ごとに整理したものであった。1950年代になると、発行される医学文献の数は膨大となり、Index Medicus のデータの機械化、コンピューター化の必要が出てきた。1960年、NLMは Index Medicus のデータのコンピューター化プロジェクト MEDLARS® (MEDical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System) を立ち上げた。 NLMは1954年に Subject Heading Authority List という Index Medicus のための表題集を発行していたが、コンピューター化データベースに使用するために用語を整理する必要があり、1960年にMeSHの初版が作られた。そして1963年、さらに改良を加えた第2版がウィニフレッド・セウェル Winifred Sewell の指導のもとに作成され[7]、これが1964年に作られたコンピューター化データベースMEDLARS®に使用された。初版の総表題数は4,413、2版では5,700であったが、階層構造等の基本構造は初版以来変わらず、毎年改訂されて収録語彙を増やしている。
Content | |
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Description | Medical subject headings |
Data types captured | controlled vocabulary |
Contact | |
Research center | United States National Library of Medicine National Center for Biotechnology Information |
Laboratory | United States National Library of Medicine |
Authors | F B Rogers |
Primary citation | PMID 13982385[1] |
Access | |
Website | https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/ |
Tools | |
Miscellaneous |
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a comprehensive controlled vocabulary for the purpose of indexing journal articles and books in the life sciences; it can also serve as a thesaurus that facilitates searching. Created and updated by the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), it is used by the MEDLINE/PubMed article database and by NLM's catalog of book holdings.
MeSH was introduced in 1963. The yearly printed version was discontinued in 2007 and MeSH is now available online only.[2] It can be browsed and downloaded free of charge through PubMed. Originally in English, MeSH has been translated into numerous other languages and allows retrieval of documents from different languages.
The 2009 version of MeSH contains a total of 25,186 subject headings, also known as descriptors.[2] Most of these are accompanied by a short description or definition, links to related descriptors, and a list of synonyms or very similar terms (known as entry terms). Because of these synonym lists, MeSH can also be viewed as a thesaurus.[3]
The descriptors or subject headings are arranged in a hierarchy. A given descriptor may appear at several locations in the hierarchical tree. The tree locations carry systematic labels known as tree numbers, and consequently one descriptor can carry several tree numbers. For example, the descriptor "Digestive System Neoplasms" has the tree numbers C06.301 and C04.588.274; C stands for Diseases, C06 for Digestive System Diseases and C06.301 for Digestive System Neoplasms; C04 for Neoplasms, C04.588 for Neoplasms By Site, and C04.588.274 also for Digestive System Neoplasms. The tree numbers of a given descriptor are subject to change as MeSH is updated. Every descriptor also carries a unique alphanumerical ID that will not change.
Most subject headings come with a short description or definition. See the MeSH description for diabetes type 2 as an example. The explanatory text is written by the MeSH team based on their standard sources if not otherwise stated. References are mostly encyclopaedias and standard textbooks of the subject areas. References for specific statements in the descriptions are not given, instead readers are referred to the bibliography.
In addition to the descriptor hierarchy, MeSH contains a small number of standard qualifiers (also known as subheadings), which can be added to descriptors to narrow down the topic.[4] For example, "Measles" is a descriptor and "epidemiology" is a qualifier; "Measles/epidemiology" describes the subheading of epidemiological articles about Measles. The "epidemiology" qualifier can be added to all other disease descriptors. Not all descriptor/qualifier combinations are allowed since some of them may be meaningless. In all there are 83 different qualifiers.
In addition to the descriptors, MeSH also contains some 139,000 Supplementary Concept Records. These do not belong to the controlled vocabulary as such; instead they enlarge the thesaurus and contain links to the closest fitting descriptor to be used in a MEDLINE search. Many of these records describe chemical substances.
In MEDLINE/PubMed, every journal article is indexed with about 10–15 subject headings, subheadings and supplementary concept records, with some of them designated as major and marked with an asterisk, indicating the article's major topics. When performing a MEDLINE search via PubMed, entry terms are automatically translated into (i.e. mapped to) the corresponding descriptors with a good degree of reliability; it is recommended to check the 'Details tab' in PubMed to see how a search formulation was translated. By default, a search for a descriptor will include all the descriptors in the hierarchy below the given one.
The top-level categories in the MeSH descriptor hierarchy are:
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