ArticlePaediatric and perinatal epidemiology2008
Assays with lower detection limits: implications for epidemiological investigations.
Article in Paediatric and perinatal epidemiology, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed.
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- A Protective Role for Arachidonic Acid Metabolites against Advanced Colorectal Adenoma in a Phase III Trial of Selenium.Nutrients · 2021Trial
- Angiogenic biomarker concentrations and their relation to coronary atherosclerosis in women with a history of preeclampsia: Findings from the CPH-PRECIOUS study.Acta obstetricia et gynecologica Scandinavica · 2026Article
- Monocyte-Amplified Transcriptional Signatures of Human Diseases.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Supramolecular PDDA/PEDOT:PSS Biosensor for Early Pancreatic Cancer Detection via CA19-9: Clinical Validation on Human Blood Samples.ACS omega · 2026Article
- 100 years of Personal Badge Radiation Doses in a Cohort of U.S. Radiologic Technologists: Expanded and Updated Reconstruction, 1916-2020.Radiation research · 2026Article
- Adolescent stress and alcohol are associated with CXFrontiers in pharmacology · 2026Article
- The effects of retinoic acid therapy on salivary and serum IL-1β, IL-8 and MCP-1 levels in periodontally healthy individuals: a prospective cohort study.Clinical oral investigations · 2025Observational
- Changes in the levels and predictors of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances in maternal plasma, relative to timelines of EPA PFOA Stewardship.Environment international · 2025Article
- Ultra-Processed Foods and Markers of Systemic Inflammation in Children.Food science & nutrition · 2025Article
- Distinct cardiac troponin alterations in patients with cocaine and alcohol use disorders during abstinence for cardiovascular risk assessment.Scientific reports · 2025Observational
- Comparison between inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry and benchtop X-ray fluorescence performance for trace elemental exposure in rat tissues.Journal of trace elements and minerals · 2025Article
- Early Detection of Asthma: Exploring Inflammatory Biomarkers in Symptomatic Adults with Normal Spirometry.Journal of asthma and allergy · 2025Article
- Effect of pubertal induction with combined gonadotropin therapy on testes development and spermatogenesis in males with gonadotropin deficiency: a cohort study.Human reproduction open · 2025Article
- Microbial exposure during recycling of domestic waste: a cross-sectional study of composition and associations with inflammatory markers.Occupational and environmental medicine · 2024Article
- Associations between bioaerosols, lung function work-shift changes and inflammatory markers: A study of recycling workers.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2024Article
- Differential Ophthalmological Profile in Patients with Coronary Artery Disease Coexisting with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Elevated Tear Cytokine Concentrations.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Associations of Perinatal Metal and Metalloid Exposures with Early Child Behavioral Development Over Time in the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study.Exposure and health · 2024Article
- Immunological Characterization of Chronic Nonbacterial Osteomyelitis (CNO) in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study.JBMR plus · 2023Article
- Preconception Phthalate Exposure and Women's Reproductive Health: Pregnancy, Pregnancy Loss, and Underlying Mechanisms.Environmental health perspectives · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Epidemiological investigations of health effects related to chronic low-level exposures or other circumstances often face the difficult task of dealing with levels of biomarkers that are hard to detect and/or quantify. In these cases instrumentation may not adequately measure biomarker levels. Reasons include a failure of instruments to detect levels below a certain value or, alternatively, interference by error or 'noise'. Current laboratory practice determines a 'limit of detection (LOD)', or some other detection threshold, as a function of the distribution of instrument 'noise'. Although measurements are produced above and below this threshold in many circumstances, rather than numerical data, all points observed below this threshold may be reported as 'not detected'. The focus of this process of determination of the LOD is instrument noise and avoiding false positives. Moreover, uncertainty is assumed to apply only to the lowest values, which are treated differently from above-threshold values, thereby potentially creating a false dichotomy. In this paper we discuss the application of thresholds to measurement of biomarkers and illustrate how conventional approaches, though appropriate for certain settings, may fail epidemiological investigations. Rather than automated procedures that subject observed data to a standard threshold, the authors advocate investigators to seek information on the measurement process and request all observed data from laboratories (including the data below the threshold) to determine appropriate treatment of those data.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.