病名の言い方の違いが効くのは、引用符を付けたときである ── 同じ臓器の二つの言い方は、引用符なしなら件数の比が 0.786〜1.239 に収まり、引用符ありなら多い方が 11.42〜209.19 倍になる(7 臓器中 6 臓器) [M005]

Abstract

同じ病気の論文を PubMed で調べるとき、言葉の選び方で件数がどれだけ変わり、それが何で分かれるかを、PubMed の E-utilities で取った件数と、PubMed が返した読み替えの式(2026 年 9 月 25 日・376 回の問い合わせ)で測った。 7 つの臓器で、ふだんの言葉(stomach・kidney・liver・lung・breast・bowel・pancreas)と医学の言葉(gastric・renal・hepatic・pulmonary・mammary・colorectal・pancreatic)を比べると、引用符なしでは二つの件数の比が 0.786〜1.239 に収まり、引用符ありでは腎臓を除く 6 臓器で多い方が 11.42〜209.19 倍になった。どちらが多いかは臓器ごとに違う。引用符なしの言葉は PubMed の自動の対応づけで医学の索引語(MeSH)に結び付けられ、6 臓器では二つの言い方が同じ索引語に読み替えられた。膵臓がんでは、pancreas cancer が引用符なしの 148,792 件から引用符ありの 2,011 件まで 73.99 倍沈む。読み替えは広げもし(bowel cancer が腸の腫瘍全体へ、pancreatic が膵炎へ)、外れもする(略語 PDAC が膵臓ではない病気の補助概念へ)。膵臓がんの記録を索引語と題名・要旨の句に分けると、二つの検索は逆向きの年を取りこぼした:句があるのに索引語の無い割合は 1990〜2010 年の 0.125〜0.206 から 2021〜2024 年の 0.399〜0.411 へ、索引語のうち句のある割合は 1975 年の 0.031 から 2024 年の 0.579 へ上がった。 本稿は公開の集計データの数の形を述べる構造的解釈であり、医学的な助言・診断・治療の推奨ではない。著者は医師ではない。個人の健康に関する判断は医師・医療機関に相談すること。査読を経ていないプレプリントである。新しい数学定理も新しい法則も主張しない。どの検索の仕方がよいかを勧めず、論文の質を論じず、論文・著者・雑誌を名指さない。日本語の表記の揺れは数えていない。データ:Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine。件数は取得時点のもので、NLM の最新のデータを反映していない。NLM は本稿を推奨していない。 作成にあたって:本稿の着想と内容は、著者自身の考察に基づくものです。文章の構成整理や英訳、数式の確認には AI(大規模言語モデル)の助力を得ました。最終的な内容の解釈や誤りがあれば、それらはすべて著者の責に帰します。お気づきの点があれば、ご教示いただければ幸いです。 ----- This paper measures how much the number of papers on the same disease found in PubMed changes with the choice of words, and what that depends on, using counts from PubMed's E-utilities and the translations PubMed returned (25 September 2026, 376 queries). For seven organs, comparing the everyday word (stomach, kidney, liver, lung, breast, bowel, pancreas) with the medical word (gastric, renal, hepatic, pulmonary, mammary, colorectal, pancreatic), the ratio of the two counts without quotes stayed within 0.786–1.239, while in quotes the larger was 11.42–209.19 times the smaller for six organs other than the kidney. Which one is larger differs by organ. Words without quotes are linked by PubMed's Automatic Term Mapping to the medical index term (MeSH), and for six organs the two names were mapped to the same index term. For pancreatic cancer, pancreas cancer sinks 73.99 times, from 148,792 records without quotes to 2,011 in quotes. Mapping both widens (bowel cancer to tumours of the whole intestine, pancreatic to pancreatitis) and misfires (the abbreviation PDAC to a supplementary concept of a disease not of the pancreas). Splitting pancreatic cancer records into the index term and the phrase in the title or abstract, the two searches missed opposite ends of time: the share with the phrase but without the index term rose from 0.125–0.206 in 1990–2010 to 0.399–0.411 in 2021–2024, and the share of index-term records with the phrase rose from 0.031 in 1975 to 0.579 in 2024. This paper is a structural interpretation of the shape of numbers in public aggregate data; it is not medical advice, not a diagnosis, and not a treatment recommendation. The author is not a physician. Decisions about individual health should be discussed with a physician or a medical institution. This is a preprint that has not been peer reviewed. No new mathematical theorem and no new law are claimed. No way of searching is recommended, the quality of papers is not discussed, and no paper, author or journal is named. Variant spellings in Japanese are not counted. Data: Courtesy of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The counts are as of retrieval and do not reflect the most current data of NLM. NLM does not endorse this paper. On the making of this work: The ideas and content of this work stem from the author's own considerations. Assistance from an AI (a large language model) was used for structuring, English translation, and checking the algebra. Any remaining errors or misinterpretations are solely the author's. Feedback and corrections are sincerely appreciated.