This section states as follows.

Definition: Defined as greater than, less than, greater than or equal, less than or equal, equal, and not equal, respectively ( ">" or "<" or ">=" or "<=" or "=" or "<>").
If this component is not valued, it defaults to equal ("=").

It's not clear what the use case is for "=", and I think that value should be deprecated. In the case where SN.2 is populated, and SN.3 and SN.4 are not populated, and SN.1 is populated with "=" (either explicitly or by default) then it wouldn't be appropriate to use the SN data type for an observation in the first place; just use NM. In the case where SN.2, SN.3, and SN.4 are all populated to indicate a range or ratio then setting SN.1 to "=" doesn't make any mathematical sense. In the case where SN.2 and SN.3 are populated to indicate a categorical result then setting SN.1 to "=" also doesn't make any mathematical sense.

We might want to check with the OO work group before making this change.