Diagnosis I
Dr. Brent E. Faught, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor Faculty of Applied Health Sciences Brock University St.Catharines, ON, Canada
Guidelines for Diagnostic Literature
Is this test potentially relevant to my practice? Has the test been compared with a true gold standard? Did this validation study include an appropriate spectrum of subjects?
Guidelines for Diagnostic Literature
Has work-up bias been avoided? Has expectation bias been avoided? Was the test shown to be reproducible? What are the features of the test as derived from this validation study?
Guidelines for Diagnostic Literature
Were confidence intervals given? Has a sensible "normal range" been derived?
Has this test been placed in the context of other
potential tests in the diagnostic sequence?
Conditional Probabilities
Gold Standard (D +) (D -) (T Clinical Test (T -)
+)
True Positive False Negative
False Positive True Negative
Interpretation of Diagnostic Data
(D +) (D -)
B
(T +)
A
P ( T + D +)
OR
(T -)
C
D
__A__ (A + C)
Interpretation of Diagnostic Data
(D +) (D -)
B
(T +)
A
P( T - D -)
OR
(T -)
C
D
__D__ (B + D)
Interpretation of Diagnostic Data
(D +) (D -)
B
(T +)
A
P( T - D +)
OR
(T -)
C
D
__C__ (A + C)
Interpretation of Diagnostic Data
(D +) (D -)
B
(T +)
A
P( T + D -)
OR
(T -)
C
D
__B__ (B + D)
Interpretation of Diagnostic Data
(D +) (D -)
B
(T +)
A
P( D +)
OR
(T -)
C
D
(A + C)