Am. Weissler, A perspective on standardizing the predictive power of noninvasive cardiovascular tests by likelihood ratio computation: 2. Clinical applications, MAYO CLIN P, 74(11), 1999, pp. 1072-1087
Citations number
54
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine","Medical Research General Topics
Likelihood ratio measures may be used as a standard far expressing the pred
ictive power of noninvasive cardiovascular tests, calculated from sensitivi
ty and specificity measures or as ratios of the predictive value odds to pr
etest odds for positive and negative test results. The positive likelihood
ratio, (+)LR, expresses the power of a positive test result to augment an e
stimate of disease probability independent of the pretest prevalence of dis
ease in a given population; the negative likelihood ratio, (-)LR, expresses
the power of a negative test result to augment an estimate of the probabil
ity of no disease independent of the pretest prevalence of no disease in th
e same population. The likelihood ratio principle is applicable to the eval
uation of the predictive poser of single or combined test results reported
for either dichotomous or continuous end points. This part of the perspecti
ve exemplifies application of the likelihood ratio principle in a wide vari
ety of testing conditions for coronary artery disease followed by a discuss
ion of the limitations of likelihood ratio computation in test poser evalua
tion. Likelihood ratios provide a more concise and unambiguous standard for
calibrating the predictive power of single and combined noninvasive cardio
vascular test results than are provided by measures of sensitivity, specifi
city, and predictive value.