Biostatistics in Clinical Medicine: Diagnostic Tests

Gerald J. Beck

RAPID BOARD REVIEW—KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER:

The relationship between a dichotomous classification of a diagnostic test result and the presence or absence of the disease can be summarized using a 2 × 2 table.

TRUE DISEASE STATUS
TEST RESULT	DISEASE PRESENT	DISEASE ABSENT	TOTAL
Positive	True positive (A)	False positive (B)	A + B
Negative	False negative (C)	True negative (D)	C + D
Total	A + C	B + D	A + B + C + D