Sensitivity and Specificity
What is sensitivity?
Sensitivity is the ability of a diagnostic test to correctly identify disease. For this clinical example, sensitivity is the ability of the physical examination to correctly identify thyroid enlargement. Remember, the ultrasound examination is the gold standard. So, in order to calculate sensitivity, you need to know the number of true positives identified by the test divided by all patients who have the disease.
Ultrasound (gold standard) | Total | ||
Enlarged (+) | Not Enlarged (-) | ||
Physical Examination | |||
Enlarged (+) | 30 | 20 | 50 |
Not Enlarged (-) | 10 | 40 | 50 |
Total | 40 | 60 | 100 |
Multi-choice
Calculate the sensitivity of your physical exam. Which one of the following is correct?
30%
| |
75%
| |
40%
| |
67%
|