Search filters include both terms to retrieve quality results for inquiry types, as well as search lines with study types to help sort results for critical appraisal. For some clinical questions it may be appropriate to combine portions of more than one filter.
**Indicates See Search Notes
1 exp "Sensitivity and Specificity"/
2 exp Diagnostic Errors/
3 Likelihood Functions/
4 Reproducibility of Results/
5 Area Under Curve/
6 exp Probability/ **
7 (accurac$ or false positive$ or false negative$ or false rate$ or likelihood or probabilit$).tw.
8 (receiver operat$ or roc or sensitiv$ or specificity).tw.
9 ((observer adj variation$) or (predictive adj3 value$)).tw.
10 or/1-9
11 (an or bl or cf or di or du or im or ur ).fs. **
12 Cross-Sectional Studies/ or Comparative Study.pt. or Epidemiologic Studies/ or Seroepidemiologic Studies/ **
13 (Guideline or Practice Guideline or Consensus Development Conference or Consensus Development Conference,NIH).pt. or (guideline$ or consensus).tw,hw. or recommend$.ti. **
14. gold adj standard$.tw. **
15. Meta Analysis.pt. or (meta analy$ or metaanaly$).tw. or systematic review$.tw. or (published studies or medline or embase or data synthesis or data extraction).ab. or cochrane.jw. **
** This filter contains terms derived from the diagnostic search hedge, and should be combined with the relevant search terms identified by the librarian searcher in order to identify sensitivity, specificity or validity of a diagnostic method, test or technique.
** Use appropriate MeSH terms and keywords in combination with this filter or MeSH terms/di if retrieval is very large—consider also MeSH terms/du.
**Statement 6: exp Probability includes:
Bayes Theorem
Likelihood Functions
Markov Chains
Odds Ratio
Proportional Hazards Models
Risk
-Logistic Models
-Risk Assessment
--Risk Adjustment
-Risk Factors
Uncertainty
**Statement 11: If retrieval is too narrow, consider using any of these subheadings or several of them, as floating subheadings in order to broaden retrieval.
**Statement 12: These “studies” terms are particularly appropriate to apply in combination with the sensitivity search hedge in order to better focus the search strategy. Use the study set with statement 10 to further filter results and to increase the relevancy.
**Statement 13: Guideline terms applied to a diagnostic search strategy will identify recommendations for use of diagnostic tests and procedures—the searcher should attempt to identify the level and quality of evidence provided. Searching for recommend*[ti] in the titles of a large set of citations can very quickly identify guideline-type articles. (If appropriate, consider including the MeSH terms: Guidelines as Topic; Practice Guidelines as Topic)
**Statement 14: Traditional tests are considered the “gold standard”. It may be useful to apply this term comparing new tests to existing ones in terms of sensitivity and specificity.
** Statement 15 : Systematic review terms applied to diagnostic search strategy will identify studies that have used a systematic approach to searching, assessing and summarizing the results. In addition to using this statement, consider using the Subject Subset limit, “Systematic Reviews”. This option is located within the Additional Limits option. This limit may also be entered directly in the search box as:
Limit [set #] to systematic reviews
The following may be appropriate depending on the nature of the question:
“Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures”/
**Check the trees for the above term in order to identify methods, procedures, and tests performed to diagnose disease, disordered function, or disability.
"Laboratory Techniques and Procedures"/
**Check the trees for the above term in order to identify specific tests such as: clinical chemistry tests, cytodiagnosis, hematologic tests, immunologic tests, serologic tests, skin tests.
exp Serologic Tests/ or Antibodies, Bacterial/an, bl, cf, du, ur or serologic$ test$.tw.
**Depending upon the nature of the question, you should consider using the above terms to focus your search toward testing for immunoglobulin reactions (e.g., antibodies) in serum.
If your question has a genetic testing component to it, you may want to consider using the following MeSH terms:
Age Factors
Disease Suceptibility
-Genetic Predisposition to Disease
Family Characteristics
Sex Factors
Diagnosis, Differential/
**While the above term is not necessarily a diagnostic test term, it may be useful in identifying articles that offer guidance in distinguishing between conditions or diseases that are similar in nature.
**The following MeSH terms and textwords can sometimes prove useful in focusing searches that deal with diagnostic testing questions involving some sort of decision-making process:
Algorithms (MeSH)
Decision Support Techniques (MeSH)
Decision Making (MeSH)
Judgment (MeSH)
prediction rule$.tw.
decision$.tw. or decide$.tw.
judg$.tw.
Ovid MEDLINE filters were developed by librarians at the University of Missouri - Columbia. For more information about the FPIN search filters, please contact the FPIN Librarian Coordinator.