MEDLINE SUBHEADINGS
MeSH subject headings have subheadings which can more precisely define a topic and avoid irrelevant citations. Use with care, as they may be inconsistently applied and have differing start dates.
"Antibiotics/administration and dosage" retrieves documents specifically about the administration and dosage of antibiotics. A search for "antibiotics" will still find this citation. Ovid displays only those subheadings which actually apply to the chosen term.
To see the list of "legal" subheadings for a specific MeSh term, enter "sh term". They are also automatically generated for mapped MeSH headings. You can also use the Boolean operator AND with a subheading and subject heading, e.g., "myocardial infarction/ and sn.sh.
Free Floating Subheadings
Subheadings may also be added without attaching them to a specific MeSH term. This can be especially useful when a concept covered by a specific subheading is desirable but its’ connection to a specific term is either unknown, uncertain or too limited. “Free floating” subheadings can be entered on the command line using the two letter abbreviation for the subheading followed by .fs. or (fs). For example, ae.fs. will add “adverse effects” as a free floating subheading to a search. Psychology, entered as px.fs , can also be very useful.
Ovid Pre-Exploded Subheading
Related groups of subheadings are "pre-exploded" under several broad categories. Pre-exploded subheadings may be retrieved using the field name xs. For example, the search "sn.xs." will retrieve all occurrences of the subheading for "statistics and numerical data" as well as all of its related subheadings.
Remember that applying a single subheading, as in the search "myocardial infarction/sn", would retrieve the term "myocardial infarction" with only the "statistics and numerical data" subheading. This search would not retrieve the exploded group of subheadings.
On the other side of the page are the categories and contents for each of the 20 exploded subheadings. Each entry is followed by its two-character abbreviation. The first heading listed defines the category.
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ADVERSE EFFECTS (AE)
poisoning (po)
toxicity (to)
ANATOMY & HISTOLOGY (AH)
abnormalities (ab)
blood supply (bs)
cytology (cy)
embryology (em)
innervation (ir)
pathology (pa)
ultrastructure (ul)
ANALYSIS (AN)
blood (bl)
cerebrospinal fluid (cf)
isolation & purification (ip)
urine (ur)
CHEMISTRY (CH)
analogs & derivatives (aa)
agonists (ag)
antagonists & inhibitors (ai)
chemical synthesis (cs)
COMPLICATIONS (CO)
secondary (sc)
CYTOLOGY (CY)
pathology (pa)
ultrastructure (ul)
DIAGNOSIS (DI)
pathology (pa)
radiography (ra)
radionuclide imaging (ri)
ultrasonography (us)
EMBRYOLOGY (EM)
abnormalities (ab)
EPIDEMIOLOGY (EP)
METABOLISM (ME)
biosynthesis (bi)
blood (bl)
cerebrospinal fluid (cf)
deficiency (df)
enzymology (en)
pharmocokinetics (pk)
urine (ur)
ETIOLOGY (ET)
chemically induced (ci)
congenital (cn)
complications (co)
embryology (em)
genetics (ge)
immunology (im)
microbiology (mi)
parasitology (ps)
secondary (sc)
transmission (tm)
virology (vi)
ORGANIZATION &
ADMINISTRATION (OG)
economics (ec)
legislation & jurisprudence (lj)
manpower (ma)
supply & distribution (sd)
standards (st)
trends (td)
utilization (ut)
PHARMACOLOGY (PD)
administration & dosage (ad)
adverse effects (ae)
agonists (ag)
antagonists & inhibitors (ai)
contraindications (ct)
diagnostic use (du)
pharmocokinetics (pk)
poisoning (po)
toxicity (to)
PHYSIOLOGY (PH)
biosynthesis (bi)
blood (bl)
cerebrospinal fluid (cf)
deficiency (df)
enzymology (en)
growth & development (gd)
genetics (ge)
immunology (im)
metabolism (me)
pharmacokinetics (pk)
physiopathology (pp)
secretion (se)
urine (ur)
STATISTICS & NUMERICAL DATA (SN)
ethnology (eh)
epidemiology (ep)
mortality (mo)
SURGERY (SU)
transplantation (tr)
THERAPY (TH)
diet therapy (dh)
drug therapy (dt)
nursing (nu)
prevention & control (pc)
rehabilitation (rh)
radiotherapy (rt)
surgery (su)
transplantation (tr)
THERAPEUTIC USE (TU)
administration & dosage (ad)
adverse effects (ae)
contraindications (ct)
poisoning (po)
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ethnology (eh)
mortality (mo)
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