Diagnostic and screening tests
Framing
- Diagnostic test performance is characterised by sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values (positive/negative), with likelihood ratios providing an additional, arguably more clinically useful metric that combines sensitivity/specificity into a single number describing how much a result shifts diagnostic probability - understanding all these related but distinct concepts is essential to correctly interpreting any test result in context
- See and other disease-specific test notes throughout this reference for applied examples of these principles
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