Key Terms – Sensitivity and Specificity are used to evaluate the analytical
performance of a clinical test.
Sensitivity is defined as the ability to correctly identify those patients with a disease (true-positive).For example, a test with 85 % sensitivity accurately detects this share of patients
with cancer (true-positives). Thus, 15 % of affected patients will stay undetected
(false-negatives). The higher the sensitivity the more powerful is the test to correctly identify
patients with cancer.
Specificity is defined as the ability to correctly identify healthy patients. For example,
a test with 92 % specificity correctly identifies this share of patients without cancer (true-negatives), with an error rate of 8 %. The higher the specificity the more powerful is the test to correctly identify patients without cancer.
12) Lalkhen, AG., McCluskey, A. (2008) Clinical tests: sensitivity and specificity, Continuing Education in Anaesthesia Critical Care & Pain. 8(6) December 2008:221-223. http://doi.org/10.1093/bjace-accp/mkn041
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