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Cited by 890Sepsis Diagnosis and TreatmentMeta-analysis and systematic reviewsStatistical Methods in Epidemiology

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 26 of the 28 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

A readers' guide to the interpretation of diagnostic test properties: clinical example of sepsis

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Fischer, Joachim E., Bachmann, Lucas M., Jaeschke, Roman·2003·Intensive Care Medicine
DOI 10.1007/s00134-003-1761-8
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Abstract

Background One of the most challenging practical and daily problems in intensive care medicine is the interpretation of the results from diagnostic tests. In neonatology and pediatric intensive care the early diagnosis of potentially life-threatening infections is a particularly important issue.Focus A plethora of tests have been suggested to improve diagnostic decision making in the clinical setting of infection which is a clinical example used in this article. Several criteria that are critical to evidence-based appraisal of published data are often not adhered to during the study or in reporting. To enhance the critical appraisal on articles on diagnostic tests we discuss various measures of test accuracy: sensitivity, specificity, receiver operating characteristic curves, positive and negative predictive values, likelihood ratios, pretest probability, posttest probability, and diagnostic odds ratio.Conclusions We suggest the following minimal requirements for reporting on the diagnostic accuracy of tests: a plot of the raw data, multilevel likelihood ratios, the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, and the cutoff yielding the highest discriminative ability. For critical appraisal it is mandatory to report confidence intervals for each of these measures. Moreover, to allow comparison to the readers' patient population authors should provide data on study population characteristics, in particular on the spectrum of diseases and illness severity.

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Crossref · 10.1007/s00134-003-1761-8

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Metadata

Authors
Fischer, J. E., Bachmann, L. M., & Jaeschke, R.
Affiliations
  • University Children's Hospital Zurich (CH)
  • McMaster University (CA)
Corresponding author
Fischer, Joachim E.
ORCID
Venue
Intensive Care Medicine
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2003-07-01
Volume
29
Issue
7
Pages
1043-1051
ISSN
  • 0342-4642 (ISSN-L)
  • 1432-1238
DOI
10.1007/s00134-003-1761-8
OpenAlex
W1997033640
Cited by
890
References
28
Citations by year
2026: 14 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 66 · 2023: 77 · 2022: 82 · 2021: 68 · 2020: 69 · 2019: 40 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 47 · 2016: 39 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 45 · 2013: 32 · 2012: 26
FWCI
3.86
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Intensive Care Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
  • reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine › Sepsis Diagnosis and Treatment
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
  • Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods in Epidemiology
Keywords
diagnostic accuracy, sepsis, critical appraisal, sensitivity and specificity, likelihood ratios, predictive value, receiver operating characteristic, diagnostic odds ratio, reporting guidelines, infection diagnosis
MeSH terms
Bayes Theorem, Diagnostic Tests, Routine, Humans, ROC Curve, Sensitivity and Specificity, Switzerland, Confidence Intervals, Likelihood Functions, Odds Ratio, Sepsis

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