IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/medema/v16y1996i1p15-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Eccentric Diagnostic Tests

Author

Listed:
  • Eugene Somoza

Abstract

Diagnostic tests exist for which the current definitions of sensitivity and specificity are in adequate. Such tests are called eccentric to distinguish them from normal diagnostic tests, for which the standard definitions are satisfactory. It is shown that when the standard defi nitions are used with eccentric tests there will be an appreciable range of cutoff values over which the test has no discriminating power. This is demonstrated with ROC analysis and information theory New definitions of sensitivity and specificity that are valid for both normal and eccentric tests are proposed. These definitions require the use of two cutoffs to distin guish test-positive from test-negative individuals When the new definitions are used with eccentric tests, performance improves significantly and the anomalous regions of zero dis criminating power disappear. In the limit of zero eccentricity the new definitions become identical to the old. Key words: eccentric diagnostic tests; sensitivity; specificity, ROC anal ysis ; information theory. (Med Decis Making 1996;16:15-23)

Suggested Citation

  • Eugene Somoza, 1996. "Eccentric Diagnostic Tests," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 16(1), pages 15-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:16:y:1996:i:1:p:15-23
    DOI: 10.1177/0272989X9601600108
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0272989X9601600108
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0272989X9601600108?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:medema:v:16:y:1996:i:1:p:15-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.