Appendix two: MESH tree structure
2004 version 2
23 December 2004
MeSH tree structure
Medical subject headings (MeSH) terms are divided into 15 main subject groups. These are:
| A | Anatomy |
| B | Organisms |
| C | Diseases |
| D | Chemicals and Drugs |
| E | Analytical, Diagnostic, and Therapeutic Techniques |
| F | Psychiatry & Psychology |
| G | Biological Sciences |
| H | Physical Sciences |
| I | Anthropology, Education, Sociology and Social Phenomena |
| J | Technology, Industry, Agriculture |
| K | Humanities |
| L | Information Science |
| M | Named Groups |
| N | Health Care |
| Z | Geographicals |
Within these main subject groups MeSH terms are arranged hierarchically, with broad topics branching into progressively narrower topics. This is often referred to as the MeSH tree structure. For example, the broad term lung diseases branches into many narrower topics including lung diseases, fungal. This in turn branches into the even narrower topics aspergillosis, allergic bronchopulmonary and pneumonia, pneumocystis carinii.
In schematic form:
lung diseases
- lung diseases, fungal
- aspergillosis, allergic bronchopulmonary
pneumonia, pneumocystis carinii
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