Published 30 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3941
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3941

Endgames

Statistical question

Screening tests

¹ Centre for Medical and Healthcare Education, St George’s, University of London, Tooting, London SW17 0RE

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A new rapid urine test was evaluated as a screening tool for Chlamydia trachomatis infection in men.¹ The test was compared with the gold standard diagnostic test for chlamydia infection—the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay. The rapid urine screening test was reported to have a sensitivity of 82.6% and specificity of 98.5%.

Which of the following statements, if any, are true?

a) Diagnostic ability: The rapid urine screening test does not provide a diagnosis of chlamydia infection.

b) Definition of sensitivity: out of all of the men with a "positive" result on the rapid urine screening test, 82.6% had a diagnosis of chlamydia infection on the PCR assay.

c) Definition of sensitivity: out of all of the men with a diagnosis of chlamydia infection according to the PCR assay, 82.6% had a "positive" result on the rapid urine screening test.

d) Definition of specificity: out of all of the men . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Sedgwick, P. (2009). Screening tests II. BMJ 339: b4030-b4030 [Full text]  

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