MEDLINE has been reloaded for 2003. Changes include a new tree, two new fields and a new subheading. The information included within is from the NLM website at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd02/nd02_2003_mesh.html.

New Tree Including New Heading and Other Changes

• Subheading Change. A new subheading, ethics, has been added with the 2003 MeSH. It is "used with techniques and activities for discussion and analysis with respect to human and social values."

• Heading Expansions
  Bioethics
  There are more than 89 new bioethics descriptors and the addition of a new heading, ethics.

  Plants and Phytotherapy
  The terminology of plants including family, genera and species have been expanded. Descriptors have been added for plant preparations. Indexing of articles, in which plants or plant materials are considered therapeutic, are coordinated with Phytotherapy. Or, with the most specific available descriptor from the Organisms-Plants Tree.

  Chemical Actions and Uses
  Chemical structure terms (such as Aminoglycosides) are being removed from the Actions branch as the first step in revision of the Pharmacological Actions. This effort will continue into next year.

  Organisms
  The coverage of microorganisms associated with notifiable diseases has been expanded. New headings and entry terms were created. Especially notable are the enhanced terminology of species in the genus Ehrlichia, and the serovars in the species Leptospira interrogans.

  Crustacea
  These have been expanded and completely revised to conform to scientific nomenclature. There are now new headings containing scientific names, plus many new entry terms for common names.

  Anatomy
  The Body Regions of the Tree were completely revised to accommodate new headings for Abdominal Cavity, Thoracic Cavity, Upper Extremity, and Lower Extremity. This conforms the terms to the official nomenclature in Terminologica Anatomica.

  Integumentary System
  A new Tree (Integumentary System) was created to include descriptors previously in other categories. It is defined as "the outer covering of the body composed of the skin and the skin appendages, which are the hair, the nails; and the sebaceous glands and the sweat glands and their ducts."

  Genetics
  Genetics terminology has been re-structured from subgroupings based on field of study to three new categories: Genetic processes, Genetic phenomena, and Genetic structures. Many new descriptors were also created with the reorganization.

  ADP-RiboseTransferases/NAD Nucleosidases
  The ADP-RiboseTransferase/NAD Nucleosidase group of enzymes (including all of the bacterial toxins that fall into this category of enzymes) and their products, were revised and updated to clearly distinguish the polyADP-Ribose transferases, the mono-ADP-ribose transferases, the ADP-ribosyl cyclases, and the sirtuins.

  Lectins The family of sugar-binding proteins called lectins is now divided into several new functional categories of proteins treed under lectins. The MeSH heading, Plant Lectins, was specifically created for the broad category of plant proteins that is generally discussed separately from the lectins that occur in various mammalian species. Citation maintenance will be used to maintain plant-related citations previously indexed under Lectins to Plant Lectins.

  Vesicular Transport Proteins
  A new descriptor, Vesicular Transport Proteins, was created to represent the broad category of proteins that are involved in transporting substances by means of vesicles throughout the cell. There are two new and two existing subcategories and a total of 25 descriptors now treed under this heading.

  Peptide Hormones
  A new descriptor, Peptide Hormones, was created. There are over 60 descriptors indented under this heading. The heading, Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins, was also created. There are over 40 descriptors indented under this heading that represent paracrine (locally acting) protein and peptide factors.

  RNA-Binding Proteins
  Several new protein categories were created under RNA-Binding Proteins including mRNA Cleavage and Poladenylation Factors, Poly(A)-Binding Proteins, Heterogeneous-Nuclear Ribonucleoproteins, and RNA Cap-Binding Proteins.

  Integrins
  The integrins are a family of receptors in alpha and beta chains which are now organized as separate descriptors under the integrins tree. Also included under integrins are headings for many familiar integrin alpha and beta chain combinations (such as Integrin alphaXbeta2) along with their more common names (such as Complement Receptor Type 4).

  Ephrins and Eph Receptors
  New descriptors were added for the Ephrins and Eph Receptors. These are in accordance with the recently established nomenclature used for this rapidly emerging group of signaling proteins and their receptors.

Change to Age Limit

For 2003, changes were made in the Age Groups tree. Adolescent replaces Adolescence; the former term remains an entry term. The Ages pull-down menu in the Ovid Limits function have been adjusted so that retrieval for All Child remains as 0-18 years to accommodate retrieval for the age groups Adolescent and Child. However, if the MeSH heading, Child is used in a search, retrieval will be restricted to Child and Child, Preschool and not Adolescent nor any of the Infant headings. This may also have a major effect on stored searches using Child.

There is also a new Middle Aged limit. This limit is for 45 plus years. To use this limit from the command line, type: limit # to middle aged.

One New Field in MEDLINE

EP	Electronic Date of Publication [Phrase Indexed]
 	20011215.ep.
 	 
The Electronic Date of Publication (EP) is the date the record or article was 
sent to NLM for inclusion in MEDLINE. It displays in the YYYYMMDD format. 

Changed Fields

RD	Revision Date [Phrase Indexed]
	20001218.rd.

The Revision Date (RD) field contains the issue (year, month and day) in which 
the document was revised in Index Medicus. The RD field appears in the format
YYYYMMDD. 

2003 MEDLINE Segments

Segment Name		Coverage	Disc(s)
MEDLINE	medl	2003 - present	3
	medc	Corrections 1966 - 2002	1
	med7	2001 - 2002	3
	med6	1999 - 2000	3
	med5	1996 - 1998	3
	med4	1993 - 1995	3
	med3	1989 - 1992	3
	med2	1982 - 1988	3
	med1	1966 - 1981	3
MED3	med03b	Second half of 2003	1
	med03a	First half of 2003	1
	med01	2001	1
	med00	2000	1
MED4	med03b	Second half of 2003	1
	med03a	First half of 2003	1
	med02	2002	1
	med01	2001	1
	med00	2000	1
	med99	1999	1
MED7	medl	2003 - present	3
	med7	2001 - 2002	3
	med6	1999 - 2000	3
	med98	1998	3
	med97	1997	3
MED10	med03b	Second half of 2003	1
	med03a	First half of 2003	1
	med02	2002	1
	med01	2001	1
	med00	2000	1
	med99	1999	1
	med98	1998	1
	med97	1997	1
	med96	1996	1
	med95	1995	1
	med94	1994	1

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