title: Laboratory findings: structure, validity and significance for medical cognitive processes.
abstract: Modern medicine employs laboratory findings to a great extent in medical cognitive and decision processes. As supposedly "hard" data, the value of such findings is frequently incorrectly assessed. So far, no comprehensive general theory of laboratory findings has been available, although various subproblems have been dealt with. Firstly, the structure of a laboratory finding will be investigated in detail, proceeding from an analysis of the scientific language used for laboratory findings. The part played by laboratory findings in medical cognitive processes in making a diagnosis or prognosis will then be shown. Finally, attempts at characterizing the validity of a laboratory finding with the aid of statistical methods and information theory, as well as appropriate steps for checking the validity will be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Klinische Chemie I, Medizinische Hochschule, Hannover, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Büttner
mesh_terms: D019411:Clinical Laboratory Techniques; D003071:Cognition; D003657:Decision Making; D003661:Decision Support Techniques; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results