Answers.Body: <p>MeSH is organized into <code>Descriptor &gt; Concept &gt; Term hierarchy</code>, where all the synonymous <code>&lt;term&gt;</code>'s are grouped together under a <code>&lt;concept&gt;</code>. For example, consider the MeSH terms,</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Blood-Brain Barrier</li>
  <li>Hemato-Encephalic Barrier</li>
  <li>Brain-Blood Barrier</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>All these terms are group under the umbrella concept of "<a href="https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/record/ui?ui=D001812" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Blood-brain barrier</a>".</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2019-03-29T10:03:15.887Z
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Body: <p>Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a very comprehensive vocabulary to index the biomedical literature on Medline or PubMed (which is the major Biomedical literature database). MeSH is arranged into Descriptor > Concept > term hierarchy, but I still do not understand the difference between a MeSH descriptor and a MeSH concept.</p>
  
  <p>For example, for Knee</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li>MeSH descriptor is <a href="https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/record/ui?ui=D007717" rel="nofollow noreferrer">D007717</a> </li>
  <li>MeSH concept is <a href="https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/record/ui?ui=D007717" rel="nofollow noreferrer">M0012066</a> (Under the concepts section in the link)</li>
  </ul>
  
  <p>Even after reading the description <a href="https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/concept_structure.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a> and <a href="https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/xmlmesh.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a>, I am still not sure about the purpose of MeSH concept and MeSH descriptor. </p>
  
  <p>Could anyone please shed some light on it?</p>
  
Tags: <ontology><literature><nomenclature>
Title: What is the difference between a MeSH concept and a MeSH descriptor
ThreadText: # What is the difference between a MeSH concept and a MeSH descriptor
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-03-25)
  
  Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is a very comprehensive vocabulary to index the biomedical literature on Medline or PubMed (which is the major Biomedical literature database). MeSH is arranged into Descriptor > Concept > term hierarchy, but I still do not understand the difference between a MeSH descriptor and a MeSH concept.
  
  For example, for Knee
  
  * MeSH descriptor is [D007717](https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/record/ui?ui=D007717)
  * MeSH concept is [M0012066](https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/record/ui?ui=D007717) (Under the concepts section in the link)
  
  Even after reading the description [here](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/concept_structure.html) and [here](https://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/xmlmesh.html), I am still not sure about the purpose of MeSH concept and MeSH descriptor.
  
  Could anyone please shed some light on it?
  
  **Tags:** ontology, literature, nomenclature
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 1 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2019-03-29. Score: 1 | Accepted answer
  
  MeSH is organized into `Descriptor > Concept > Term hierarchy`, where all the synonymous `<term>`'s are grouped together under a `<concept>`. For example, consider the MeSH terms,
  
  1. Blood-Brain Barrier
  2. Hemato-Encephalic Barrier
  3. Brain-Blood Barrier
  
  All these terms are group under the umbrella concept of "[Blood-brain barrier](https://meshb.nlm.nih.gov/record/ui?ui=D001812)".
  
  
  ---
  
  