This document presents methods for determining the critical value of the response variable and the minimum detectable value in Poisson distribution measurements. It is applicable when variations in both the background noise and the signal are describable by the Poisson distribution. The conventional approximation is used to approximate the Poisson distribution by the normal distribution consistent with ISO 11843-3 and ISO 11843-4.

The accuracy of the normal approximation as compared to the exact Poisson distribution is discussed in Annex B.