Quantitative structure–activity relationships (
QSAR) are mathematical
relationships linking chemical structure and pharmacological activity
in a quantitative manner for a series of compounds. Methods which
can be used in
QSAR include various regression and
pattern
recognition techniques.
QSAR is often taken to be equivalent to
chemometrics or multivariate
statistical data analysis. It is sometimes used in a more limited sense
as equivalent to
Hansch analysis.
QSAR is a subset of the more
general term
SPC.