6.6 Expressions With Concrete Values

Please note that concrete values are currently not supported in the SNOMED CT International Release or the Snowstorm terminology server. A technical preview of the International Edition of SNOMED CT is planned for the first quarter of 2021, which will feature the use of concrete values for numbers.

New attributes that are added to the SNOMED CT concept model (or to a SNOMED CT extension) may require their value to be concrete. Concrete values include integers (e.g. 500), decimals (e.g. 2.75), strings (e.g. "PANADOL"), and booleans (e.g. TRUE).

The expression shown below uses both concept values and concrete values to represent a capsule that contains 500 mg of amoxicillin¹ . In this case, the dose form, the active ingredient, the basis of strength substance and the strength unit all use a concept as their value, while the strength magnitude is represented using a numeric value. The numeric value is indicated in the expression by the preceding '#' symbol (e.g. #500).

    774586009 |Amoxicillin only product| :
       411116001 |Has manufactured dose form| = 420692007 |Oral capsule| ,
      { 127489000 |Has active ingredient| = 372687004 |Amoxicillin| ,
         179999999100 |Has basis of strength| = 372687004 |Amoxicillin| ,
         189999999103 |Has strength value| = #500, 199999999101 |Has strength unit| = 258684004 |mg| }

The expression below represents an oral solution that contains 0.083 % albuterol.

    91143003 |Albuterol| :
       411116001 |Has manufactured dose form| = 385023001 |oral solution| ,
      { 127489000 |Has active ingredient| = 372897005 |Albuterol| ,
        179999999100 |Has basis of strength| = 372897005 |Albuterol| ,
        189999999103 |Has strength value| = #0.083, 199999999101 |Has strength numerator unit| = 118582008 |%| }

Boolean and string-based concrete values may also be used. For example, the expression below represents a tablet containing 500 mg of paracetamol with a trade name (or brand name) of "PANADOL"² .

322236009 |Paracetamol 500mg tablet| : 209999999104 |Has trade name| = "PANADOL"

And the expression below represents an Irbesartan 150 mg tablet that is eligible for reimbursement through the national benefit scheme (of the given country).

318969005 |Irbesartan 150 mg oral tablet| : 859999999102 |Is in national benefit scheme| = TRUE

Please note that boolean and string-based concrete values should be used with caution. Care must be taken to only use these in situations in which the clinical meaning cannot be adequately defined using a concept value.

Footnotes
Ref	Notes
1	Please note that these example expressions are based on a hypothetical drug concept model, and are not intended to reflect any specific drug model. In these expressions, the SNOMED CT identifiers created with the '9999999' namespace are for example only, and should not be used in a production environment.
2	Concrete values of type string are case sensitive and compared using the Unicode Collation Algorithm (http://www.unicode.org/reports/tr10/).

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6.6 Expressions With Concrete Values