Semiquantitative assessment

Taylor CR, Levenson RM. Quantification of immunohistochemistry—issues concerning methods, utility and semiquantitative assessment II. Histopathology 2006 49 411 124. 

Ultrarapid computed tomography may minimize artifact from heart motion during contraction and relaxation and provides a semiquantitative assessment of calcium content in coronary arteries. 

The definition of a significance value, SV, analogous to the homogeneity index [SINGER and DANZER, 1984] enables semiquantitative assessment of the significance of inhomogeneity ... 

The line-tracing test (LTT) is used to determine the accuracy of a person s fine motor control. A test sheet (s. fig. 10.3) shows a relatively complex road map , 5 mm in width (corresponding to a 2.5 m wide lane). The patient is asked to trace this not-so-easy path with a pencil from start to finish, as quickly as possible, without going over the edges. The number of errors provides a semiquantitative assessment. In addition, the respective number of points can be recorded in the score sheet, (s. tab. 10.10)... 

Dosage of anthelmintics, which usually refers to a single dose, is based on semiquantitative assessment of clinical efficacy, although, when appropriate, bioavailability and the plasma concentration profile of the active moiety (parent drug and/or active... 

All limit value tests performed in accordance with the pharmacopoeias include a semiquantitative assessment of the chromatogram. Here, too, in accordance with GMP, a second person should inspect the plate if no pictorial documents are prepared. 

Although the aim is to make a semiquantitative assessment that should approximate the in vivo concentration, accumulating evidence suggests that plasma concentrations in vivo do not necessarily equal liver concentrations. For example, as mentioned above, pitivastatin is actively taken up into the liver by the hepatic uptake transporters OATPIBI and OATP1B3 (Hirano et al., 2004), which likely results in a high liver plasma ratio. 

Semiquantitative methods are used to describe the relative risk scale. For example, risk can be classified into categories such as low, medium, high, or very high. The number of levels of risk can vary from (say) a to b. In a semiquantitative approach, different scales are used to characterize the likelihood of adverse events and their consequences. Analyzed probabilities and their consequences do not require accurate mathematical data. Semiquantitative assessment is useful especially if quantification of risk is difficult. At the same time, qualitative interpretation is too subjective. As already discussed, the risk graph (highly project dependent) discussed in Chapter 1 in conjunction with available guided risk nomogram or LOPA approach, is commonly used for this purpose. Here discussions wiU be mainly on the LOPA approach (LOPA wiU be dealt with separately later). 

Ten days later each animal was challenged by a serial dilution of DNCB (0.1% - 0.003%) in ethanol. Erythema and induration of the 50 yl challenge was semiquantitatively assessed 24 and 48 hours later. Animals fed diets with 1 and 3 ppm Se supplements appeared more sensitive than controls to the DNCB. The quinea pigs receiving 7 ppm Se showed some increased hypersensitivity but this Se level was... 

Qualitative analysis is normally used for an initial characterization of a totally unknown sample. After developing some general information about the composition of the material, a more sophisticated analysis scheme can be devised for further analysis. Although qualitative analysis is the simplest form of elemental characterization, with a marginal amount of additional effort, a semiquantitative assessment of the sample can be made, which provides the analyst with a significant amount of additional information, beyond the identification of the elements that are present. 

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