PMID: 9554104Apr 29, 1998Paper

Quantitative information of specific diagnostic tests

Journal of Medical Systems
A F Bowyer

Abstract

The goal of diagnostic testing is to maximize information (I) of a specific disease of interest (D) resulting from the performance of a specific diagnostic test procedure (T). However, all tests suffer from errors which result in incomplete information and inaccurate diagnostic conclusions. The methods of Information Theory have successfully solved a range of signal transmission problems involving physical systems operating under conditions of noise. Medical testing procedures were found to be analogous to noisy systems; hence, Information Theory methods were applied to minimize errors in diagnostic testing. Prior to performing a diagnostic test, the quantity of information, Apriori Information (ID), regarding the presence or absence of the disease was only a function of the prevalence (P) of disease in the population. After performing a diagnostic test, the quantity of information, Aposteriori Information (IDIT) was a function of not only P but also the test sensitivity (A) and test specificity (B). The quantity of information gained by test performance was computed from the difference between aposteriori and apriori information. delta I = IDIT - ID To illustrate the relationship between pretest, apriori, and post-test, aposte...Continue Reading

Citations

May 16, 2008·Medical Decision Making : an International Journal of the Society for Medical Decision Making·Serguei PakhomovSteven Smith

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