Title: Making sense of diagnostic tests likelihood ratios
Abstract:A smart mother makes often a better diagnosis than a poor doctor. August Bier German, professor of surgery 1861–1949.
Statistical diagnosis is a mystery to many health practitioners.1 Information i...A smart mother makes often a better diagnosis than a poor doctor. August Bier German, professor of surgery 1861–1949.
Statistical diagnosis is a mystery to many health practitioners.1 Information is often presented as test accuracy (sensitivity and specificity). However, at the bedside we need to know how a test result predicts the diagnosis or outcome of interest. Attempts to demystify approaches to diagnosis include the construction of 2 by 2 boxes, nomograms, and rules such as SpPin (with a Specific test the Positive Rules in) and SnNout (with a Sensitive test the Negative Rules out). In our teachings of evidence-based medicine, we have found an easier, intuitive way to interpret the results of diagnostic studies based on 2 elements: the likelihood ratio of the test and the pretest odds.
The likelihood ratio (LR) summarises information about the diagnostic test by combining information about the sensitivity and specificity . It tells you how much a positive or negative result changes …Read More
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-09-29
Language: en
Type: editorial
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 23
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