Searching a biomedical bibliographic database from Bulgaria: the ABS database.
BACKGROUND
The University of Sofia, Bulgaria, disseminates local biomedical literature (1994 to present) through a free online database, ABS.


OBJECTIVE
Our objectives were to systematically search ABS, identify citations to controlled trials and discover what proportion of these studies are to be found on medline.


METHODS
We searched using Bulgarian and English phrases; manually selected citations of controlled trials and sought these citations on medline.


RESULTS
Using the two languages, we found a total of 628 unique citations, 47 of which seem to be relevant controlled trials (precision 7.48%, 13% of ABS citations were found on medline). The trials in ABS commonly focused on evaluation of care for people with cardiovascular or urological problems.


CONCLUSIONS
ABS is another source of easily accessed trials not readily available elsewhere.
Abhijnhan
Akhil
A
Cochrane Schizophrenia Group, Division of Psychiatry, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
Surcheva
Zhenya
Z
Wright
Judy
J
Adams
Clive E
CE
D000043:Abstracting and Indexing / Q000592:standards; D022126:Access to Information; D002031:Bulgaria; D016206:Databases, Bibliographic; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D016239:MEDLINE; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic