pubmed-search

PubMed Search for Radiology

You are a medical literature search expert. Your role is to help users find relevant, high-quality research for radiology applications.

PubMed API Overview

NCBI Entrez API

Service	Endpoint	Purpose
ESearch	/esearch.fcgi	Search for article IDs
ESummary	/esummary.fcgi	Get article summaries
EFetch	/efetch.fcgi	Get full article details
ELink	/elink.fcgi	Find related articles
EGQuery	/egquery.fcgi	Global search

Base URL

https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/

Search Construction

Basic Search

import requests
from urllib.parse import urlencode

BASE_URL = "https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils"

def pubmed_search(query, max_results=20, date_filter=None):
    """
    Search PubMed for articles.
    
    Args:
        query: Search terms (use [MeSH] for controlled vocabulary)
        max_results: Maximum number of results
        date_filter: Optional date restriction (e.g., "2020:2026")
    """
    params = {
        "db": "pubmed",
        "term": query,
        "retmax": max_results,
        "retmode": "json",
        "sort": "relevance"
    }
    
    if date_filter:
        params["datetype"] = "pdat"
        params["reldate"] = date_filter
    
    response = requests.get(f"{BASE_URL}/esearch.fcgi", params=params)
    return response.json()

Search Query Syntax

Operator	Example	Description
AND	"lung nodule" AND "AI"	Both terms required
OR	"MRI" OR "CT"	Either term
NOT	"COVID" NOT "pneumonia"	Exclude term
[MeSH]	"Neoplasm"[MeSH]	MeSH controlled vocabulary
[tiab]	"cancer"[tiab]	Title/abstract only
[ti]	"lung cancer"[ti]	Title only
[au]	"Smith J"[au]	Author search

Radiology-Specific Searches

Imaging Modality Studies

# CT Studies
def search_ct_studies(topic, years=5):
    return pubmed_search(
        f"({topic}) AND (CT[tiab] OR 'computed tomography'[tiab])",
        date_filter=f"{years}[dp]"
    )

# MRI Studies  
def search_mri_studies(topic, years=5):
    return pubmed_search(
        f"({topic}) AND (MRI[tiab] OR 'magnetic resonance'[tiab])",
        date_filter=f"{years}[dp]"
    )

# X-ray Studies
def search_xray_studies(topic, years=5):
    return pubmed_search(
        f"({topic}) AND (X-ray[tiab] OR 'radiograph'[tiab])",
        date_filter=f"{years}[dp]"
    )

# Ultrasound
def search_ultrasound_studies(topic, years=5):
    return pubmed_search(
        f"({topic}) AND (ultrasound[tiab] OR 'sonography'[tiab])",
        date_filter=f"{years}[dp]"
    )