Let’s get started!

[Chrissy Durrough Lugge]

Hi everyone! Feel free to start a new topic for each question to make it easiest for us to catch everything! This thread will be open until 1:00 EST.

[Helen Carey]

Good morning or good afternoon! I am here to assist today as you wind down your exam prep in the final stretch!

Helen

[Anne Heinritz]

hello! so questions will be answered on this thread? no live video chat? just trying to make sure I’m not missing anything 🙂

[Chrissy Durrough Lugge]

Correct. Everything will be here to allow participants to review the chat later.

[Anne Heinritz]

great! I have no specific questions right now. I just wanted to learn from others. I still have troubles with specificity vs sensitivity. No explanations currently “click” for me. This chart probably helps the most but I have a hard time drawing it from memory.

What is sensitivity and specificity, and why should I care?

Might just need more repetition!

[Helen Carey]

Please excuse any typos in advance, as I will likely be typing quickly to keep up with questions!

[Helen Carey]

Correct, Anne. I will answer questions as we go using the this chat forum.

[Helen Carey]

Actually, I struggle with sensitivity and specificity as well! This looks like a good resource.

I have used this one: sensitivity and specificity resource

I try to think of application using a few common clinical tests, such as the M-CHAT, AIMS, TIMP, etc.

[Danielle Vequist]

It states “about:blank#blocked” when I click on the “sensitivity and specificity resource” link. Perhaps it is just security settings on my PC. Can others access this link? Thanks!

[Anne Heinritz]

I can’t access it either

[Helen Carey]

Shreffler J, Huecker MR. Diagnostic Testing Accuracy: Sensitivity, Specificity, Predictive Values and Likelihood Ratios. [Updated 2023 Mar 6]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2025 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557491/

[Helen Carey]

Here are some of my notes on sensitivity and specificity:

Sensitivity (true positive rate) refers to the percentage of children who are correctly identified as meeting criteria for a condition; VALUABLE FOR CONFIRMING DX; 80% sensitivity is preferable.
Specificity (true negative rate) refers to the percentage of children without problems who are correctly identified as such; VALUABLE TO RULE OUT THE PRESENCE OF A CONDITION; 90% is preferable for a diagnostic test.
There is always a “trade-off” between sensitivity and specificity: for a screening test in which early diagnosis is beneficial and when it is desirable to identify all those at risk for having a condition, high sensitivity is preferable to higher specificity.
**For the TIMP, Specificity is higher, indicating that it is a good measure for detecting large numbers of high risk infants who are not developing typically and have delayed posture and motor development, which is it’s intended purpose. It is not as sensitive for identifying CP.
**The AIMS has been found to be more beneficial when administered at critical age ranges. While the 5th centile cut off value is best to identify the most delayed children (and those likely to have CP), the 10th centile cut off is best for identification of the greatest # of infants with abnormal motor development.
-AIMS at 4 months: 10th Centile: best combination of sensitivity/specificity
-AIMS at 8 months: 5th Centile: better specificity to identify CP; 10th Centile: better sensitivity to identify greatest # of
infants with abnormal gross motor development

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