Description
Despite increasing pressure to practice evidence-based medicine, most doctors are ignorant of the basic concepts of assessing diagnostic tests. Even we recognize terms such as specificity are misunderstood by most hospital doctors, and likelihood ratio is almost unknown. However, these concepts are relatively simple and can be applied easily. This paper is designed to raise awareness of modern ways of assessing diagnostic tests by applying them to the diagnosis of a common condition met in the practice of most specialties, i.e. coeliac disease. The endomysial antibody test is being used increasingly frequently as a screening test for coeliac disease and is an example of the simplest application of a likelihood ratio.
