Using Medline to achieve an evidence-based approach to diagnostic clinical biochemistry

Medline is the US National Library of Medicine database that is used for searching the medical biochemistry literature. The database is structured using medical subject subheadings (MeSH terms) to classify the content of references; indexing is done manually using MeSH terms as key words. Searching the database effectively means finding the maximum number of relevant references together with the minimum number of irrelevant ones. This article is aimed at explaining the limitations of Medline and suggesting some solutions to key problems. The goal is that users can improve their literature search technique by employing a structured approach. As usual, asking relevant questions before starting a search is essential.