Searching Medline
National Library of Medicine/PUBMED
Getting There
Choose Electronic Resources, and either By Subject or Alphabetical List.
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General Hints
Medline (PubMed) is one of the most specific medical databases available. Choose your search terms carefully. The PubMed web site has several help features, including an interactive tutorial. Take advantage of these resources to learn more about searching PubMed.
Searching
- Enter search terms in the search area.
- Link terms with AND, NOT, OR. Remember—these words must be capitalized.
- Take advantage of the Limit feature by clicking on the Limit tab. This will help you eliminate useless hits. Limit your search by several criteria, including language, publication type, gender, or publication date.
- Once you have entered your search, click "Preview" to see just the number of hits the search would return. If the number is too large, refine your search.
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- Once you are satisfied with your search, click "Go" to actually perform the search.
Getting Results
You will see a list of citations. The citations are often just a one-line summary or a short abstract. Most MedLine articles are NOT available full-text. To read these articles, you must check the Master List in Periodicals to see if we have the journal, or do an InterLibrary Loan.
A sample citation:
Journal info: Acta Radiol. 2000 Jan; 41(1): 73-7.
Title: Infrapopliteal percutaneous transluminal angioplasty
for limb salvage.
Boyer L, Therre T, Garcier JM, Perez N, Ravel A, Privat C, Viallet JF
Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
PURPOSE: To evaluate long-term results of infrapopliteal percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) for limb salvage. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A retrospective study of 71 consecutive infrapopliteal PTAs in 49 patients with rest pain (n = 20) or ulceration (n = 29) was conducted. In 18 patients, surgical minor amputation or debridment was also performed. RESULTS: Technical success was achieved in 45 patients. Four failures necessitated 2 amputations. One patient died in the postoperative course. Global morbidity rate was 16%, including minor complications in 5 patients and major vascular complications in 3 patients. After technical success during the follow-up (median duration 21 months), restenoses occurred in 4 patients, of whom 3 had a successful re-PTA (clinical success rate 72%). Survival, primary patency, secondary patency and limb salvage rates were, respectively, 75%, 81%, 88% and 87% after 3 years. The only positive predictive factor for primary patency was the presence of diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSION: Infrapopliteal PTA is a safe and effective procedure, allowing good patency and limb salvage rates with low mortality and morbidity.