Now lets look at a hypothetical example.

There is a new diagnostic test being developed for the detection of myocardial infarction (i.e. heart attacks) in Emergency Department patients that present with chest pain. Like current diagnostic tests being used to detect heart attacks, the test detects a molecular marker that is released from myocardial tissue when the tissue is damaged. However, the new diagnostic test measures a newly discovered marker that is only present in myocardial tissue (older tests detect markers that are released from multiple tissue types, making it harder to determine if the marker was released into the blood secondary to a heart attack or from another cause).

A trial was completed for this diagnostic test looking at 100 patients that presented to the Emergency Department with chest pain. Of the 100 patients, 50 patients had a heart attack. Of these 50 patients that had a heart attack, 40 had positive test results. 20 of the patients that did not have a heart attack also had positive test results.

Fill in the 2x2 table below.