Part 2: Positive and negative predictive values of diagnostic tests

• Main Authors: Saeed Safari, Alireza Baratloo, Mohamed Elfil, Ahmed Said Negida
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences 2018-12-01
• Series: Archives of Academic Emergency Medicine
• Subjects: Positive predictive value; negative predictive value; diagnostic test
• Online Access: https://journals.sbmu.ac.ir/aaem/index.php/AAEM/article/view/274

I n volume 3, number 2, pages 48-49, we explained some screening characteristics of a diagnostic test in an educational manuscript entitled “Simple definition and calculation of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity" (1). The present article was aimed to review other screening performance characteristics including positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV). PPV and NPV are true positive and true negative results of a diagnostic test, respectively (2). In other words, if a subject receives a certain diagnosis by a test, predictive values describe how likely it is for the diagnosis to be correct