> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.finngen.fi/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.finngen.fi/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/atlas-vs-bigquery-cohorts.md).

# Atlas vs BigQuery cohorts

There are different ways to construct a cohort within Sandbox. You can construct your cohort by following steps [here](/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/atlas/detailed-guide/how-to-define-a-cohort-in-atlas.md) wit [Atlas](/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/atlas.md) in Sandbox. You can also construct your cohort using [BigQuery data tables](/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/bigquery-relational-database.md).

For the cohort constructed basically using same criteria in Atlas and BigQuery, you will see that there will be difference in sample numbers due to the following reasons.

**One of the reasons** is that not all medical codes present in [service sector detailed longitudinal](/finngen-data-specifics/red-library-data-individual-level-data/what-phenotype-files-are-available-in-sandbox-1/service-sector-data.md) data are present in the[ medical vocabularies](/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/atlas/detailed-guide/code-sets-in-atlas.md).

Imagine, you are looking for Asthma ICD-8 diagnosis code `49320` present in [service sector BigQuery table](/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/bigquery-relational-database.md). The same ICD-8 diagnosis code is absent in the [medical vocabularies](/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/atlas/detailed-guide/code-sets-in-atlas.md) thereby will not pull any such `FINNGENIDs` in cohort constructed in Atlas.

**Another reason** is that when a visit (refers to a row in service sector data) is considered the current OMOP conversion takes into account all the medical codes in that visit.

Imagine, you are looking for Asthma ICD-10 diagnosis code `J45.9` present in the [service sector BigQuery table](/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/bigquery-relational-database.md) as `CODE1` and `I10` as `CODE2`. The current OMOP conversion process takes in the combination of both `CODE1` and `CODE2` together thereby making the code `J45.9+I10` which is absent in [medical vocabularies](/working-in-the-sandbox/which-tools-are-available/atlas/detailed-guide/code-sets-in-atlas.md) and will also be absent in the cohort constructed in Atlas.

**Another reason** is that when important information about which medical vocabulary a code should belong to is missing then OMOP conversion will miss such visits.