title: Receiver operating characteristic curves and their use in radiology.
abstract: Sensitivity and specificity are the basic measures of accuracy of a diagnostic test; however, they depend on the cut point used to define "positive" and "negative" test results. As the cut point shifts, sensitivity and specificity shift. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a plot of the sensitivity of a test versus its false-positive rate for all possible cut points. The advantages of the ROC curve as a means of defining the accuracy of a test, construction of the ROC, and identification of the optimal cut point on the ROC curve are discussed. Several summary measures of the accuracy of a test, including the commonly used percentage of correct diagnoses and area under the ROC curve, are described and compared. Two examples of ROC curve application in radiologic research are presented.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology/Wb4, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, 9500 Euclid Ave, Cleveland, OH 44195, USA. nobuchow@bio.ri.ccf.org
authors.forename: Nancy A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Obuchowski
mesh_terms: D019540:Area Under Curve; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity