It depends …
Usually, one will develop subset codelists starting from the by CDISC published codelist, containing only the values that one really needs.
This is especially the case for the UNIT (C71620) codelist. After all, the codelists in the define.xml are meant to only contain the POSSIBLE values in your submission.
So, if your list of units in ADCM, ADLB and ADEX are completely identical (which I doubt), you can generate a single UNIT-subset-codelists starting from the by CDISC published one, and reference that single subset-codelist from the corresponding variables in these three domains.
If your list of units in ADCM, ADLB and ADEX are not identical, you should generate 3 subset UNIT codelists, one for each case, take care that your variables reference the correct one.
Please also take into account that these subset codelists still need to contain the correct NCI codes both at the codelist level itself, as on the codelist item level, even though it are subsets, unless for “extended” values, which will have the attribute def:ExtendedValue=“Yes”.
There is a good amount of user-friendly tools available on the market to do all this easily and correctly.
Jozef Aerts
CDISC Define-XML Team