Characterization of dose-response relationships inferred by statistically significant trend tests.

A method is proposed for classifying various experimental outcomes associated with statistically significant trend tests according to a set of sequential testing within a family of closed (under intersections) one-sided tests. The intent of the procedure is to characterize the general shape of implied dose-response relationships, taking care neither to inflate the false-positive (Type I) error rate by overtesting, nor to sacrifice power by overadjusting for multiple comparisons.