On Setting Limits on Bodily Fluids for Classifying Individuals as Pathological

The problem solved in this paper is that of determining the minimum sample size for setting the ‘normal’ range for bodily fluids. The proportions of too low and too high values which are considered ‘abnormal’ are chosen based upon medical considerations. The criterion used to determine the minimum sample size is that the proportions of the too low and too high values will be not exceeded by more than a prescribed amount with a given probability. The resulting limits are β-expectation tolerance limits with the added condition just noted, and are labeled β-expectation inner tolerance limits.