Determining organ weight toxicity with Bayesian causal models: Improving on the analysis of relative organ weights.

ABSTRACT: Regulatory authorities require animal toxicity tests for new chemical entities. Organ weight changes are accepted as a sensitive indicator of chemically induced organ damage, but can be difficult to interpret because changes in organ weight might reflect chemically-induced changes in overall body weight. A common solution is to calculate the relative organ weight (organ to body weight ratio), but this inadequately controls for the dependence on body weight - a point made by statisticians for decades, but which has not been widely adopted. The recommended solution is an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), but it is rarely used, possibly because both the method of statistical correction and the interpretation of the output may be unclear to those with minimal statistical training. Using relativ

SUBMITTER: Lazic SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7170916 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature