Retrospective assessment

M. Crow and co-workers. Synthetic FuelTechnology Development in the United States—-A. Retrospective Assessment, Praeger Pubhshing, New York, 1988. 

It must be remarked that terminology is not consistent and there are many widely used synon)ms. Quality control in this Chapter refers to practices best described as internal quality control. Quahty assessment is often referred to as external quality control, proficiency testing, interlaboratory comparisons, round robins or other terms. Internal Quality Control and External Quality Assessment are preferred because they best describe the objectives for which the RMs are being used, i.e. the immediate and active control of the results being reported from an analytical run or event, and an objective, retrospective assessment of the quality of those results. 

While some prospective data collection is required for almost all pharmacoeconomic studies, the amount of data to be collected for the pharmacoeconomic evaluation is still the subject of much debate. There is no definitive means of addressing this issue at present. Phase II studies can be used to develop data that will help determine which resource consumption items are essential for the economic evaluation. Without this opportunity for prior data collection, however, we must rely upon expert opinion to suggest major resource consumption items that should be monitored within the study. Duplicate data collection strategies (prospective evaluation of resource consumption within the study s case report form with retrospective assessment of resource consumption from hospital bills) can be used to ensure that data collection strategies do not miss critical data elements. 

Menticoglou SM, Morrison 1, Harman CR, Maiming FA, Lange IR. Maximum possible impact of tocolytics in preventing preterm birth a retrospective assessment. Am J Perinatol 1992 9 394-7. 

A retrospective assessment of the potential antifertility influence of ethylene dibromide was conducted by studying the reproductive perfonnance of men exposed to ethylene dibromide in the workplace. Data were obtained from four chemical plants manufacturing ethylene dibromide located in the southern part of the United States (Arkansas and Texas). Exposures in the plants ranged from less than 0.5 ppm to 5 ppm [3.8-38 mg/m- ]. Evaluations were made exclusively on the basis of the men s reproductive histories of live births to their wives, subsequent to their occupational exposure. The mmiber of live births was compared with the expected mmiber derived from national fertility tables. One of the four plants studied showed a significant decrease in fertility however, when data from the four plants were combined, there was no significant effect of ethylene dibroniide exposure on reproductive performance (Wong et al., 1979). 

Kauppinen, T.P., Pannett, B, Marlow, D.A. Kogevinas, M. (1994) Retrospective assessment of exposure through modelling in a study on cancer risks among workers exposed to phenoxy herbicides, chlorophenols and dioxins. Scand. J. Work Environ. Health, 20, 262-271... 

Bell ML, Bell ML, Davis DL, Fletcher T (2004) A retrospective assessment of mortality from the London smog episode of 1952 the role of influenza and pollution. Environ Health Perspect 112( 1 ) 6—8... 

It is noteworthy that comparisons of existing assessment schemes reveal dissimilarities in the use of extrapolation methods and their input data between different jurisdictions and between prospective and retrospective assessment schemes. This is clearly apparent from, for example, a set of scientific comparisons of 5% hazardous concentration (HC5) values for different substances. Absolute HC5 values and their lower confidence values were different among the different statistical models that can be used to describe a species sensitivity distribution (SSD Wheeler et al. 2002a). As different countries have made different choices in the prescribed modeling by SSDs (regarding data quality, preferred model, etc.), it is clear that different jurisdictions may have different environmental quality criteria for the same substance. Considering the science, the absolute values could be the same in view of the fact that the assessment problem, the available extrapolation methods, and the possible set of input data are (scientifically) similar across jurisdictions. When it is possible, however, to look at the confidence intervals, the numerical differences resulting from different details in method choice become smaller because confidence intervals show overlap. 

Are confidence limits helpful in your assessment, especially in the case of retrospective assessments ... 

Ecological risk assessment of chemical mixtures thus has to deal with a variety of field phenomena, a possible range of assessment endpoints, and a variety of assessment approaches. Moreover, there exists a huge variety in the regulatory questions and problem formulations addressed in ecological risk assessment of chemical mixtures. Examples include the protection of specific species against well-defined mixtures (like PCBs and PAHs), the protection of an undefined concept like the ecosystem, and retrospective assessments for highly or diffusely contaminated systems. 

The review presented in the previous sections shows an enormous diversity in risk assessment methods and procedures for chemical mixtures. This diversity is characteristic for the current state of the art. The awareness that mixtures may cause risks that are not fully covered by single compound evaluations is growing, but the knowledge required to accurately assess the risks of chemical mixtures is still limited. The scientific community is attempting to unravel the mechanisms involved in mixture exposure and toxicity, and over recent decades, a multitude of new techniques to assess mixture risks have been developed. However, a comprehensive and solid conceptual framework to evaluate the risks of chemical mixtures is still lacking. The framework outlined in Section 5.4 can be considered a first step toward such a conceptual framework. The framework recognizes that the problem definitions vary greatly (between protective and retrospective assessments, for humans and ecosystems), and that each question has resulted in a different type of approach. 

London, L. and J.E. Meyers (1998). Use of a crop and job specific exposure matrix for retrospective assessment of long term exposure in studies of chronic neurotoxic effects of agrichemicals, Occup. Environ. Med., 55, 194-201. 

McNamee, R. (1996). Retrospective assessment of occupational exposure to hydrocar-bons-job-exposure matrices versus expert evaluation of questionnaires, Occup. Hyg., 3, 137-143. 

Couturier JL, Nicolson R (2002) A retrospective assessment of citalopram in children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 12 243-248... 

Hartmann, P.C., Oosterveld, B.J., Thijssen, J.M., Rosenbusch, G.J., Berg, van den, J. Detection and differentiation of diffuse liver disease by quantitative echography. A retrospective assessment. Invest. Radiol. 1993 28 1-6... 

On retrospective assessment of a large number of cirrhotic patients, some of whom we treated for more than 10 years, it is our impression that long-term administration of spironolactone -I- molsidomine + P-blocker is of therapeutic value for portal hypertension and, at least as far as this problem is concerned, also for primary and progressive pulmonary hypertension. Such combination therapy is also pharmacologically plausible, (s. p 743)... 

Bennett, B.G., Retrospective assessment of the French atmospheric tests and their contribution to exposures , report on Int. Conf. on the Radiological situation at the Atolls of Mururoa and Fangataufa, Vienna, Austria, 30 June-3 July, 1998. 

In 44 patients with profonnd mental retardation a retrospective assessment of adjnnctive lamotrigine (272 mg/day) showed a significant rednction in seizure frequency from 10.1 to 5.8 seizures per month (6). There were no treatment-related changes in laboratory parameters, vital signs, or body weight, and no serious rashes. In three of five patients there was worsened self-injnrious behavior, requiring dmg withdrawal. 

HPDP explicitly incorporates, in the case of the Cherry Point herring, these levels of scale and grain size that are critical to consider in a risk or retrospective assessment (Figure 2.6). A framework that applies the components of HPDP immediately places an endpoint or assessment endpoint into an ecologically relevant contextual framework including spatial scale, grain size, and temporal relationships. Wu and David (2002) have demonstrated that the HPDP framework can also incorporate anthropogenic features such as land use boundaries, roads, and urbanization. 

Absorption of dietary fat is a remarkably efficient process, so that in normal health, fecal fat is largely (if not entirely) derived from endogenous rather than dietary sources. Adequate dietary fat intake is therefore essential to minimize false-negative results. The BSG guidehnes recommend a diet containing at least 70 g fat for 6 days. In the UK only a minority of laboratories try to control (20%) or retrospectively assess (8%) fat intake. Patients with steatorrhea may reduce their fat intake to control their diarrhea and despite laboratory instructions may not increase their dietary fat... 

Suter, G.W. (1998) Retrospective assessment, ecoepidemiology and ecological monitoring. Handbook of Environmental Risk Assessment and Management, Calow, P. (ed.), pp. 170-217. Blackwell Science, Oxford. 

Guerriero FJ, Seaman CW, Olsen MJ, Guest R, Whittingham A (2004) Retrospective assessment of the rabbit enucleated eye test (REET) as a screen to refine worker safety... 

Dosemeci (USA) 1997 Validation study for a retrospective assessment procedure to evaluate historical benzene exposures of workers in China Benzene Exposure data available for comparison Concentration ranges (ppm)... 

Benke, G., Sim, M., Forbes, A., and Salzberg, M. (1997). Retrospective assessment of occupational exposure to chemicals in community-based studies Validity and repeatabiUty of industrial hygiene panel ratings. Int J Epidemiol 26, 635-642. 

Kleinerman, R. A., Romanyukha, A. A., Schauer, D. A., and Tucker, J. D. (2006). Retrospective assessment of radiation exposure using biological dosimetry Chromosome painting, electron paramagnetic resonance and the glycophorin a mutation assay. Radiat Res 166, 287-302. 

Siemiatycki, J., Fritschi, L., Nadon, L., and Gerin, M. (1997). Reliability of an expert rating procedure for retrospective assessment of occupational exposures in community-based case—control studies. Am J Ind Med 31, 280-286. 

Retrospective dietary-assessment methods are simpler and less expensive than prospective and duplicate-diet methods, and therefore are used more often as the basis of dietary expostrre assessments. Food-fiequency studies take the form of participants identifying their typical fish consrrmption (e.g., How many times per week/month do you usually eat fish AT). Diet histories involve recollection of specific meals over a specific time (e.g. 24-hr or 1-week periods). In the studies mentioned above, Sherlock et al. (1982) and Haxton et al. (1979) used retrospective assessment of typical consumption to preselect subjects. In a recent study of MeHg exposure among pregnant women in New Jersey (Stem et al. 2000), participants were asked to identify their typical consumption frequency and typical portion size of 17 species of fish and... 

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