Computing
likelihood ratios from sensitivity and specificity
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Often, the literature reports diagnostic test characteristics as sensitivity
and specificity rather than likelihood ratios. You could compute them by
constructing a two by two table as we did above.
|
SLE |
No SLE |
|
Positive
ANA |
2822 |
6798 |
|
Negative
ANA |
58 |
90322 |
|
|
2880 |
97120 |
100000 |
Going back to the original definition of likelihood ratio, we can compute
the probability of a positive ANA test in patients with SLE: (2822 / 2880)
or 0.98. We can also compute the probability of a positive ANA test in
patients without SLE: (6798 / 97120) or 0.07. The likelihood ratio for
a positive ANA is then 0.98 / 0.07 or 14. Using an analagous approach,
you should be able to compute the likelihood ratio for a negative ANA (0.02).
In more general terms:
LR+
= Sensitivity / (1 - Specificity)
LR- = (1 - Sensitivity) / (Specificity)
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