criterion

1. A standard or rule for judging; usually plural (criteria) denoting a set of standards or rules. 2. In psychology, a standard such as school grades against which test scores on intelligence tests or other measured behaviors are validated. 3. A list of manifestations of a disease or disorder, a certain number of which must be present to warrant diagnosis in a given patient. [G. kriterion, a standard]

- Amsel criteria criteria for clinical diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis; the diagnosis is made if three of the following four criteria are positive : homogeneous discharge, pH ≥ 4.8, presence of clue cells, and amine odor with the application of KOH to the discharge.

- Hill's criteria of evidence a set of epidemiologic criteria that help to indicate whether a statistically significant relationship obtained in epidemiologic and other studies is a causal relationship. The criteria are consistency, specificity, strength, dose-response relationship, temporality, biologic plausibility, coherence, and capability of experimental confirmation. Temporality is the only absolute c.: the putative cause must precede the effect in time.

- Jones criteria criteria (proposed by T.D. Jones in 1944 and modified in 1965) used to make the diagnosis of rheumatic fever. There are five major criteria: carditis, polyarthritis, chorea, erythema marginatum, and subcutaneous nodules; minor criteria include fever, arthralgia, elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate or C reactive protein, and prolonged PR interval on ECG. Diagnosis requires evidence of recent group A β-hemolytic streptococcal infection, plus two major and one minor criteria, or one major and two minor criteria; revised Jones criteria allow the diagnosis when indolent carditis or chorea exists with no other cause, or in patients with a previous history of rheumatic fever who have one major or two minor criteria in association with a recent streptococcal infection.

- Spiegelberg criteria (for diagnosis of ovarian pregnancy) 1) the oviduct on the affected side must be intact; 2) the amnionic sac must occupy the position of the ovary; 3) the amnionic sac must be connected to the uterus by the ovarian ligament; and 4) ovarian tissue must be present in the wall of the amnionic sac.

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cri·te·ri·on (kri-tērґe-on) [Gr. kritērion a means for judging] a standard by which something may be judged.