Practice exam 4

[Kristin Hallberg]

31. A new test to diagnose rotator cuff tears in adults has a specificity of 25% and sensitivity of 90%. The prior gold standard special test for rotator cuff tears in adults has a specificity of 89% and sensitivity of 31%. Based on this data, what conclusion can you safely make?
a. The new test will lead to few false negatives
b. The gold standard test will lead to few false negatives
c. The new test will lead to few false positives
d. The gold standard test will lead to many false positives

It says the correct answer is A. Please explain?

[Nick Smith]

Since the new test has a very high sensitivity, that translates to that if the test is negative then there is a high likelihood that you can rule out RC tear. This means there should not be very many false negatives. There could be a lot of false positives however with a specificity of 25% or when the test is positive you can’t feel confident to rule in the dx. Hope this helps.

Nick

[Kristin Hallberg]

Thank you for discussing Nick!
The specificity of the new test is 25% which means that 75% of ALL negatives are false negatives. So this is considered poor ability of the test to rule out – MANY false negatives. What am I missing?

[michaela main]

Hi kristin this might help:

sen. = true positive/ true positive plus false negative
spec.= true negative/ true negative and false positive

[Kristin Hallberg]

Yes it does…omg my brain is playing games with me. Thank you both!

[Author]

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