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The Ontology for Biomedical Investigations
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Consider generalizing the definition of 'hematology assay' #1310

Open jamesaoverton opened 3 years ago

jamesaoverton commented 3 years ago

The definition of http://purl.obolibrary.org/obo/OBI_0000630 'hematology assay' is:

An assay that studies blood and blood producing organs using a variety of techniques and instruments

We discussed this on the OBI call on 2021-02-22 and there was concern that this is too narrow. Specifically, we are worried that hematocrit (the ratio of the volume of red blood cells to the total volume of blood) doesn't fit this definition. We propose to generalize the textual definition:

an assay studying the physiology of blood

bpeters42 commented 3 years ago

Ongoing discussion in the call 3/15:

Proposed revised textual definition: "An assay that generates data on the physiology of blood and/or blood-producing organs."

The problem is in the logical restriction of limiting it to 'hematopoesis', which is probably too strict.

Some examples and counters:

We want to make sure that e.g. an assay measuring glucose levels in blood does not equal a hematology assay, but would be considered clinical chemistry. Or detection of viral particles in the blood by PCR, or presence of an antibody in blood which would also not be hematology assay. But that e.g. a fetal liver assay of hemoglobin production would be a hematology assay as it pertains to blood production.

Current examples of usage include: Co-associations between insulin sensitivity and measures of liver function, subclinical inflammation, and hematology.

jamesaoverton commented 3 years ago

Could we say that 'hematology assay' has target entity "hemopoiesis or hematopoietic cell"? Maybe we also want to include (blood-specific?) parts of 'hematopoietic cell'? Maybe just specifying hemoglobin and maybe a few more as parts is enough?