Exploring literature on complications caused by
diabetes mellitus using PubMed
Your task: you know that diabetes is a significant risk factor for many serious health
problems. However, with the correct treatment and recommended lifestyle changes,
many people with diabetes are able to prevent or delay the onset of complications.
Thus, you want to know more about one of the complications, including its
pathogenesis, symptoms, and treatments. For this, you will need to find and read 5
recent reviews on the subject of your interest, make some notes for your future
reference and include citations.
1. Choose for your database searches one of such complications in the right hand
column (different students should do different searches):
Eye Complications Retinopathy
Glaucoma
Cataracts
Macular edema (used as example)
Skin Complications Bacterial infections
Fungal infections
Itching
Neuropathy (Nerve Damage) Peripheral neuropathy
Autonomic neuropathy
Foot Complications Foot ulcers
Intermittent claudication
Metabolic disorders (e.g. high level of ketones) Ketoacidosis (DKA)
Kidney Disease Nephropathy
High Blood Pressure Hypertension
Stroke
2. Perform literature search in PubMed. As an example, we will explore the subject of
macular edema in diabetes (see file “Sample literature [Link]”).
3. Go to PubMed and using the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) database search for
diabetes complications:
4. Explore subheadings:
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If you get too many references you can use these to narrow your search down by
selecting only those subheadings, which interest you most. Exactly how?
5. Add "Diabetes Complications"[Mesh] to your Search Builder:
6. Now search in MeSH for macular edema:
7. Explore its subheadings in case you need to narrow down your search:
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8. Add to Search Builder and click Search PubMed:
9. Check your Search Query in Search Details:
10. Look at the timescale of this research:
11. At this stage there are 2548 papers – too many to read! See general advice on this
issue in PubMed Help. We will use “Click manage filters in the Filter your results portlet
to change your My NCBI filter selections” option.
Click on Manage Filters button at the top right-hand side of window. Now recall you
wanted to read some recently published on reviews on your topic. In Filters, under
category Popular select Free full text, Published in the last 5 years, Review:
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The filter list looks like this:
NB: you can click on “Create custom filter” to add your custom filter.
12. Return to you PubMed search page (you may need to refresh it).
Note the results - window top right:
The filters are activated by clicking on the filter hyperlinks. Add them by clicking on the
plus sign next to each filter option:
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13. There are 48 papers now included in the search. It is now possible to review them
and select those you want to read first. Select to display 50 records by page, sorted by
Best Match:
14. Check boxes to make your selection:
15. Import citations to Mendeley by clicking on the button of the Web Importer plug-in:
Select Save all and Download PDF if available.
16. Log-in to Mendeley, select My Library → Recently added:
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17. Start Mendeley Desktop and sign in with your user account email and password.
18. Start MS Word, make some notes on the subject using abstracts of the reviews you
just found in PubMed, and insert citations where appropriate.
19. Generate Bibliography (menu References → Insert Bibliography in Ms Word).
20. Change style of References to “Nature”. Save your Word file and submit it to
instructor for marking.