title: Screening tests: a review with examples.
abstract: Screening tests are widely used in medicine to assess the likelihood that members of a defined population have a particular disease. This article presents an overview of such tests including the definitions of key technical (sensitivity and specificity) and population characteristics necessary to assess the benefits and limitations of such tests. Several examples are used to illustrate calculations, including the characteristics of low dose computed tomography as a lung cancer screen, choice of an optimal PSA cutoff and selection of the population to undergo mammography. The importance of careful consideration of the consequences of both false positives and negatives is highlighted. Receiver operating characteristic curves are explained as is the need to carefully select the population group to be tested.
authors.affiliation: Everest Consulting Associates , Cranbury, NJ , USA and.
authors.forename: L Daniel
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Maxim
authors.forename: Ron
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Niebo
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Utell
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer / Q000379:methods; D005188:False Negative Reactions; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging; D008327:Mammography; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
keywords: Benefits and limitations; positive and negative predicted value; prevalence; screening tests; sensitivity; specificity