Hierarchical Queries

Hierarchical queries allow users to form searches to find child specimens based on some characteristics of its parent specimens. For example, DNA derived from tumor breast tissue specimens.

To form hierarchical queries, follow below steps:

Create a new query by adding filters for parent and child specimens
Add the hierarchical operator between parent and child filters. A hierarchical operator is indicated below:
The operator needs to be placed before the child filters and after parent filters like below. The child filters should be closed in parenthesis.
Click on view records and select specimen fields by clicking on columns. The columns selected will be displayed for both child and parent specimens. Currently, there is no way to select different columns for parent and child specimens.

An example of a hierarchical query shipped with OpenSpecimen as a default query with the title 'Show details of a participant having DNA derived from Tumor Breast Frozen Tissue'. This can be used as a reference.

Please Note

The column names for parent and child specimens cannot be renamed individually.
It is not possible to rearrange columns across levels. All the parent specimen columns are displayed first and followed by the child specimens.
The temporal field is shown for the parent specimens only when the parent specimen contain data for the field used in a temporal expression.
Some fields are displayed only at the parent level since they have the same values across all levels. E.g. anatomic site, biohazard, specimen class, laterality, pathology status.
To display these fields for both parent and child levels, include them explicitly in the query edit page as follows:

Hierarchical Queries

Please Note

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