Objective 3. Keyword Search Steps: Term Variants, Join Terms
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Include any alternative forms of search terms
Now that you’ve gathered term lists, it’s time to think about the variants of the gathered terms that might exist.
You’ve developed the terms lists below. Does a review of the term lists suggest any other term variants?
paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria
- paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria
- paroxysmal hemoglobinuria
- paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria
- Cold Paroxysmal Hemoglobinuria
- Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria
- Marchiafava-Micheli Syndrome
- Marchiafava Micheli Syndrome
- Nocturnal Paroxysmal Hemoglobinuria
- PNH
- paroxysmal haemoglobinuria
- intermittent haematuria
- paroxysmal haematuria
- paroxysmal haematinuria
eculizumab
- eculizumab
- Alexion
- Elizaria
- Soliris
- 5G1.1
- H5G1.1VHC+H5G1.1VLC
- H5G1.1
- H5G1-1
- H5G11
- 219685-50-4
- eculizumabum
- Acveris
- Bekemv
- Epysqli
Thrombosis
- Blood Clot
- Blood Clots
- budd chiari
- embolism
- embolus
- postthrombotic
- thromboembolism
- thromboinflammation
- thromboses
- thrombosis
- Thrombus
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If multiple similar phrases exist for a concept, consider using a multi-subconcept ‘term’ instead
The fact that “intermittent haematuria” is one term used for paroxysmal haemoglobinuria/haematinuria term brings to mind the possibility of “intermittent haemoglobinuria” and “intermittent haematinuria” and the American spellings of these words. Whenever you encounter multiple similar multi-word phrases, consider simplifying your search by splitting the phrases into a multi-subconcept search term. The “paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria” search can be simplified by splitting the paroxysmal subconcept and the hemoglobinuria/hemolysis subconcept as shown below:
((intermittent OR paroxysmal ) AND ( haemoglobinuria OR hemoglobinuria OR haematuria OR hematuria OR haematinuria OR hematinuria))
PNH
Marchiafava-Micheli Syndrome
Marchiafava Micheli Syndrome
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Tips for identifying relevant term variants
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To be sure you’ve found all needed variants, ask yourself the bulleted questions listed below:
While considering the bulleted questions, remember a single word trunk followed by the asterisk wildcard can retrieve multiple different word forms (e.g. haemoly* can retrieve haemolysis, haemolyses, haemolytic, etc.). Also a PubMed search for a hyphenated term will also find that term if it contains a space rather than a hyphen.
- Have you removed any non-essential words from multi-word phrases?
- The words “disease” and “syndrome” can usually be removed from eponymous disease names. Use a title/abstract tag [tiab] after the eponym to keep the eponym from finding author’s names.
- Are both singular and plural forms of nouns present or represented by truncated terms?
- If your term list includes any verbs, are all forms of the verb included (ex. erode,erodes,eroded,eroding) or represented by truncated terms
- If your term list includes verbs, have you included any noun forms of those verbs (ex. erosion, erosions) or represented these with truncated terms
- If your term list includes nouns, have any adjective forms of those nouns been included (ex. neuropathic for neuropathy) or represented by truncated terms
- If your term list includes adjectives, have you included any adverb forms of those adjectives (ex. quick, quickly) or represented by truncated terms
- Have you included British as well as American spellings (e.g. haematuria, hematuria)?
- Have you included any commonly used abbreviations (ex. NIDDM for non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus)
- Have you included relevant opposites? (e.g. If your search includes a safety concept, in addition to the safety words, you need to include danger/harzard/etc. words.)
A couple points to keep in mind for future searches:
- Words that end in -sis like hemolysis should usually be truncated before the -sis. This allows retrieval of the plural -ses form (e.g. hemolyses) and the adjective -tic form (e.g. hemolytic).
- Words that end in -ia like hematinuria should usually be truncated after the -i. This allows retrieval of the adjective -ic form (e.g. hematinuric).
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Add additional terms to your list until you can answer yes or not applicable to each of the above questions.
Revised term lists
The shortest versions of the revised term lists would look something like the following:
- Eculizumab*
- 219685-50-4
- h5G1.1*
- h5g11
- h5G1-1
- 5G1.1
- Soliris
- Elizaria
- Alexion
- Acveris
- Bekemv
- Epysqli
- ((intermittent OR paroxysmal ) AND ( haemoglobinur* OR hemoglobinur* OR haematur* OR hematur* OR haematinur* OR hematinur*))
- PNH
- Marchiafava-Micheli [tiab]
- Clot
- Clots (clot* might retrieve cloth, clothing, etc.)
- budd-chiari[tiab]
- embol*
- postthromb*
- thromb*
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Step 3 – 6. Create search strategies for individual concepts
Step 3. Enclose any multi-word terms (terms containing spaces) with quotation marks
Step 4. Truncate any terms with multiple useful endings using asterisks and remove any words that are no longer needed because of the truncation of other terms. If you truncate a keyphrase, only the last word in the phrase can be truncated and the asterisk wildcard must be inside the quotation mark.
Step 5. Join the alternate terms for a single concept using OR.
Step 6. Place parentheses around the OR’d together term list.
Did you come up with search statements/strategies similar to those shown below?
(Eculizumab* OR 219685-50-4 OR h5G1.1* OR h5g11 OR h5G1-1 OR 5G1.1 OR Soliris OR Elizaria OR Alexion OR Acveris OR Bekemv OR Epysqli)
(((intermittent OR paroxysmal ) AND ( haemoglobinur* OR hemoglobinur* OR haematur* OR hematur* OR haematinur* OR hematinur*)) OR PNH OR Marchiafava-Micheli [tiab])
(Clot OR Clots OR budd-chiari[tiab] OR embol* OR postthromb* OR thromb*)
If you’ve found problems with your search statements/strategies, correct them. Feel free to ask the for help or clarification.
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Step 7. Join the Disparate Concepts
Now it’s time to join the “paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria” keyword search statement to the “eculizumab” keyword search statement. What Boolean Operator (AND, OR, or NOT) should be used for this operation?
Did you come up with a search statement/strategy similar to the strategy below?
(Eculizumab* OR 219685-50-4 OR h5G1.1* OR h5g11 OR h5G1-1 OR 5G1.1 OR Soliris OR Elizaria OR Alexion OR Acveris OR Bekemv OR Epysqli) AND (((intermittent OR paroxysmal ) AND ( haemoglobinur* OR hemoglobinur* OR haematur* OR hematur* OR haematinur* OR hematinur*)) OR PNH OR Marchiafava-Micheli [tiab]) AND (Clot OR Clots OR budd-chiari[tiab] OR embol* OR postthromb* OR thromb*)