Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul 6;18(1):73.
doi: 10.1186/s12874-018-0529-3.

Development and validation of a MEDLINE search filter/hedge for degenerative cervical myelopathy

Benjamin M Davies  1 , Samuel Goh  2 , Keonwoo Yi  2 , Isla Kuhn  3 , Mark R N Kotter  4
Affiliations

Development and validation of a MEDLINE search filter/hedge for degenerative cervical myelopathy

Benjamin M Davies et al. BMC Med Res Methodol. .

Abstract

Background: Degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) is a common condition with many unmet clinical needs. Pooled analysis of studies is an important tool for advancing medical understanding. This process starts with a systematic search of the literature. Identification of studies in DCM is challenged by a number of factors, including non-specific terminology and index terms. Search filters or HEDGEs, are search strings developed and validated to optimise medical literature searches. We aimed to develop a search filter for DCM for the MEDLINE database.

Methods: The diagnostic test assessment framework of a "development dataset" and seperate "validation dataset" was used. The development dataset was formed by hand searching four leading spinal journals (Spine, Journal of Neurosurgery Spine, Spinal Cord and Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques) in 2005 and 2010. The search filter was initially developed focusing on sensitivity and subsequently refined using NOT functions to improve specificity. One validation dataset was formed from DCM narrative and systematic review articles and the second, articles published in April of 1989, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2013 and 2017 retrieved via the search MeSH term 'Spine'. Metrics of sensitivity, specificity, precision and accuracy were used to test performance.

Results: Hand searching identified 77/1094 relevant articles for 2005 and 55/1199 for 2010. We developed a search hedge with 100% sensitivity and a precision of 30 and 29% for the 2005 and 2010 development datasets respectively. For the selected time periods, EXP Spine returned 2113 publications and 30 were considered relevant. The search filter identified all 30 relevant articles, with a specificity of 94% and precision of 20%. Of the 255 references listed in the narrative index reviews, 225 were indexed in MEDLINE and 165 (73%) were relevant articles. All relevant articles were identified and accuracy ranged from 67 to 97% over the three reviews. Of the 42 articles returned from 3 recent systematic reviews, all were identified by the filter.

Conclusions: We have developed a highly sensitive hedge for the research of DCM. Whilst precision is similarly low as other hedges, this search filter can be used as an adjunct for DCM search strategies.

Keywords: Cervical; Degeneration; Disc herniation; Hedge; MEDLINE; Myelopathy; Ossification posterior longitudinal ligament; Search filter; Spondylosis; Spondylotic; Stenosis; Systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study Overview. Three development datasets were made using the publications from lead spinal journals; Spine, Spinal Cord, Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine, Journal of Spinal Disorder’s and Techniques and Neurosurgery. Two separate validation data sets were created, a) using publications from April of selected years with the MeSH term ‘Spine’ and b) the references of recent DCM reviews [–31]. The number of relevant articles is presented for each method as a fraction of the normal of articles screened
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Validation in EXP Spine. The number of articles published in April, with MeSH term Spine, has decreased over time, although the proportion of relevant articles has increased. The filter had 100% sensitivity, with a precision of 5–40%
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Nouri A, Tetreault L, Singh A, Karadimas SK, Fehlings MG. Degenerative cervical myelopathy: epidemiology, genetics, and pathogenesis. Spine. 2015;40(12):E675–E693. doi: 10.1097/BRS.0000000000000913. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Davies BM, Mowforth OD, Smith EK, Kotter MR. Degenerative cervical myelopathy. BMJ. 2018;360:k186. doi: 10.1136/bmj.k186. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Oh T, Lafage R, Lafage V, Protopsaltis T, Challier V, Shaffrey C, Kim HJ, Arnold P, Chapman J, Schwab F, et al. Comparing quality of life in cervical Spondylotic myelopathy with other chronic debilitating diseases using the short form survey 36-health survey. World Neurosurg. 2017;106:699–706. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2016.12.124. - DOI - PubMed
    1. E R: Elemental Ideas: Cervical Spondylotic Myelopathy. In. Edited by TV C. Available from: http://archive.cambridge-tv.co.uk/elemental-ideas-cervical-spondylotic-m....
    1. Davies BM, McHugh M, Elgheriani A, Kolias AG, Tetreault L, Hutchinson PJ, Fehlings MG, Kotter MR. The reporting of study and population characteristics in degenerative cervical myelopathy: a systematic review. PLoS One. 2017;12(3):e0172564. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172564. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms