Table 1. Comparison of article-based and author-based MeSH term pair odds ratios against human raters’ judgments of semantic relatedness.
| Physicians | Coders | CUI1 | CUI2 | MeSH Term 1 | MeSH Term 2 | article odds ratio | author odds ratio |
| 4 | 4 | C0035078 | C0035078 | Renal Insufficiency | Renal Insufficiency | ||
| 3 | 3.3 | C0156543 | C0000786 | no exact match | Abortion, Spontaneous | ||
| 3.3 | 3 | C0018787 | C0027061 | Heart | Myocardium | 27.5 | 4.2246 |
| 3 | 2.8 | C0038454 | C0021308 | Stroke | Infarction | 1.16 | 1.7916 |
| 3 | 2.2 | C0011253 | C0036341 | Delusions | Schizophrenia | 35 | 5.2131 |
| 2.7 | 2 | C0175895 | C0009814 | Vascular Calcification | Constriction, Pathologic | 2.84 | 0 |
| 2.7 | 1.8 | C0027627 | C0001418 | Neoplasm Metastasis | Adenocarcinoma | 11.6 | 4.5045 |
| 3 | 1.4 | C0018802 | C0034063 | Heart Failure | Pulmonary Edema | 12.6 | 3.8184 |
| 1.7 | 1.4 | C0034069 | C0242379 | Pulmonary Fibrosis | Lung Neoplasms | 8.86 | 3.327 |
| 2.3 | 1.3 | C0011991 | C0344375 | Diarrhea | no exact match | ||
| 2.3 | 1.3 | C0026269 | C0004238 | Mitral Valve Stenosis | Atrial Fibrillation | 28.5 | 7.9298 |
| 2 | 1.3 | C0006118 | C0151699 | Brain Neoplasms | Intracranial Hemorrhages | 5.74 | 3.8165 |
| 1.7 | 1.2 | C0003232 | C0020517 | Anti-Bacterial Agents | Hypersensitivity | 0.68 | 0.9068 |
| 1.7 | 1.2 | C0034065 | C0027051 | Pulmonary Embolism | Myocardial Infarction | 4.75 | 2.3836 |
| 2 | 1.1 | C0007286 | C0029408 | Carpal Tunnel Syndrome | Osteoarthritis | 4.65 | 4.2669 |
| 2 | 1.1 | C0003873 | C0409974 | Arthritis, Rheumatoid | Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic | 18.8 | 3.6328 |
| 2 | 1 | C0702166 | C0039142 | Acne Vulgaris | Syringes | 0 | 0.7958 |
| 2 | 1 | C0011849 | C0020538 | Diabetes Mellitus | Hypertension | 5.97 | 1.8314 |
| 1.7 | 1 | C0010137 | C0086511 | Cortisone | Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee | 0.05 | 0.2433 |
| 1.3 | 1 | C0206698 | C0009378 | Cholangiocarcinoma | Colonoscopy | 0.44 | 8.0176 |
| 1.3 | 1 | C0333997 | C0007107 | Giant Lymph Node Hyperplasia | Laryngeal Neoplasms | 0 | 3.9563 |
| 1 | 1 | C0003615 | C0029456 | Appendicitis | Osteoporosis | 0 | 0.7581 |
| 1 | 1 | C0011581 | C0007642 | Depressive Disorder | Cellulitis | 0 | 0.2698 |
| 1 | 1 | C0020473 | C0027627 | Hyperlipidemias | Neoplasm Metastasis | 0.08 | 1.142 |
| 1 | 1 | C0026769 | C0033975 | Multiple Sclerosis | Psychotic Disorders | 0.73 | 1.0165 |
| 1 | 1 | C0030920 | C0027092 | Peptic Ulcer | Myopia | 0.09 | 0.163 |
| 1 | 1 | C0034887 | C0003483 | Colonic Polyps | Aorta | 0 | 1.2344 |
| 1 | 1 | C0042345 | C0224701 | Varicose Veins | Medial Collateral Ligament, Knee | 0 | 0.4605 |
| 1 | 1 | C0043352 | C0023891 | Xerostomia | Liver Cirrhosis, Alcoholic | 0 | 2.0231 |
Pedersen et al (2007) compiled a list of 29 UMLS concept (CUI) pairs annotated by physicians or medical coders, on a 1 to 4 scale of semantic similarity. We mapped these to the corresponding MeSH term pairs as far as possible and displayed their article-based and author-based odds ratios.