Better know what´s asked for. Critical review of studies about diagnostic tests

Abstract

The validity of a diagnostic test is assessed by its ability to discriminate among healthy and sick, as well as to detect changes in the previous probability of presenting the disease according to the test result. The critical appraisal of these studies will assess their methodological validity, the relevance of the results and their applicability to our clinical practice. For this, aspects such as the characteristics of the test, the prevalence and the spectrum of disease among the participants will have to be examined.