Validity of the diagnosis of appendicitis in the Danish National Patient Register

2018 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jakob Kleif ◽  
Lau C. Thygesen ◽  
Ismail Gögenur

Aims: Appendicitis is a common disease. The nationwide Danish National Patient Register provides an important data source for epidemiological research. Data used in register-based epidemiological research needs to be validated. We aimed to validate the diagnosis of appendicitis in the Danish National Patient Register. Methods: From 1997 to 2015 nationwide data from the Danish National Patient Register, the Danish Pathology Register, and the Danish Civil Registration System were used to validate the diagnosis of appendicitis or the combination of the diagnosis for appendicitis and surgical removal of the appendix in the Danish National Patient Register. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values were calculated using pathology reports as golden standard. Results: Diagnosis of appendicitis in the Danish National Patient Register had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 0.928 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.927; 0.930), 0.995 (95% CI: 0.995; 0.995), 0.769 (95% CI: 0.767; 0.771), and 0.999 (95% CI: 0.999; 0.999). A diagnosis of appendicitis and a procedure code for surgical removal of the appendix had a sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of 0.886 (95% CI: 0.885; 0.888), 0.998 (95% CI: 0.998; 0.998), 0.895 (95% CI: 0.894; 0.897), and 0.998 (95% CI: 0.998; 0.998). Conclusions: The diagnosis of appendicitis alone or in combination with the registered surgical removal of the appendix in the Danish National Patient Register showed acceptable validity. Whether to use the diagnosis for appendicitis only or in combination with procedure codes for the removal of the appendix depends on whether high sensitivity or high positive predictive values are warranted.

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 630-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pernille Lühdorf ◽  
Kim Overvad ◽  
Erik B. Schmidt ◽  
Søren P. Johnsen ◽  
Flemming W. Bach

Aims: To determine the positive predictive values for stroke discharge diagnoses, including subarachnoidal haemorrhage, intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral infarction in the Danish National Patient Register. Methods: Participants in the Danish cohort study Diet, Cancer and Health with a stroke discharge diagnosis in the National Patient Register between 1993 and 2009 were identified and their medical records were retrieved for validation of the diagnoses. Results: A total of 3326 records of possible cases of stroke were reviewed. The overall positive predictive value for stroke was 69.3% (95% confidence interval (CI) 67.8–70.9%). The predictive values differed according to hospital characteristics, with the highest predictive value of 87.8% (95% CI 85.5–90.1%) found in departments of neurology and the lowest predictive value of 43.0% (95% CI 37.6–48.5%) found in outpatient clinics. Conclusions: The overall stroke diagnosis in the Danish National Patient Register had a limited predictive value. We therefore recommend the critical use of non-validated register data for research on stroke. The possibility of optimising the predictive values based on more advanced algorithms should be considered.


Medicina ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 503
Author(s):  
Thomas F. Monaghan ◽  
Syed N. Rahman ◽  
Christina W. Agudelo ◽  
Alan J. Wein ◽  
Jason M. Lazar ◽  
...  

Sensitivity, which denotes the proportion of subjects correctly given a positive assignment out of all subjects who are actually positive for the outcome, indicates how well a test can classify subjects who truly have the outcome of interest. Specificity, which denotes the proportion of subjects correctly given a negative assignment out of all subjects who are actually negative for the outcome, indicates how well a test can classify subjects who truly do not have the outcome of interest. Positive predictive value reflects the proportion of subjects with a positive test result who truly have the outcome of interest. Negative predictive value reflects the proportion of subjects with a negative test result who truly do not have the outcome of interest. Sensitivity and specificity are inversely related, wherein one increases as the other decreases, but are generally considered stable for a given test, whereas positive and negative predictive values do inherently vary with pre-test probability (e.g., changes in population disease prevalence). This article will further detail the concepts of sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values using a recent real-world example from the medical literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Konuralp Yakar

Aim. To compare the clinical performance of the Spot Vision Screener used to detect amblyopia risk factors (ARFs) in children before and after induction of cycloplegia; the children were referred because they met the screening criteria of the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS). Methods. The Spot Vision Screener and a standard autorefractometer were used to examine 200 eyes of 100 children aged 3–10 years, before and after cycloplegia induction, in terms of ARFs. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values for the detection of significant refractive errors were measured using the AAPOS referral criteria. It was explored that Spot Screener data were affected by cycloplegia. The extent of agreement between cycloplegic/noncycloplegic photoscreening data and cycloplegic autorefraction measurements was assessed using Wilcoxon and Spearman correlation analyses. Results. The Spot’s sensitivity was improved from 60.9% to 85.3% and specificity from 94.9% to 87.4% with cycloplegia compared to cycloplegic standard autorefractometer results. The positive predictive value of Spot was 75.7%, and the negative predictive value was 90.4% without cycloplegia. With cycloplegia, the positive predictive value of Spot was 63.6% and the negative predictive value was 95.8%. Conclusions. The Spot Screener afforded moderate sensitivity and high specificity prior to cycloplegia. The sensitivity and negative predictive value improved after induction of cycloplegia. Examiners should be aware of the effects of cycloplegia on their findings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (04) ◽  
pp. 75-79
Author(s):  
Agnus Mathew ◽  
DM Patel ◽  
KK Hadiya

This study was carried out on 10 infertile barren mares to evaluate the sensitivity, specificity, predictive values and agreement (kappa value) of cytological and microbiological findings of three diagnosing techniques of endometritis, viz., endometrial biopsy (EB), cytobrush (CB) and low volume uterine lavage (LVL) in relation to endometrial histology. When histological examinations from EB were used as “the best standard,” the sensitivity of cytology from EB, CB and LVL technique was 0.33, 0.50 and 0.50; specificity 0.75, 1.00 and 0.75; positive predictive value 0.66, 1.00 and 0.75, and negative predictive value was 0.42, 0.57 and 0.50, respectively. The sensitivity of bacteriology from EB, CB and LVL technique was 0.83, 0.83 and 1.00; the specificity was 0.75, 0.75 and 0.50; positive predictive value 0.83, 0.83 and 0.75, and the negative predictive value was 0.75, 0.75 and 1.00, respectively. In all the cases, the sensitivity of the bacteriology was found to be higher than the sensitivity of cytology. When the results of cytological and bacteriological examinations were combined, no any increase in the sensitivity was found. Bacteriology and cytology from CB showed the highest positive predictive value demonstrating that a positive result is an accurate indication of endometritis. Sensitivity values were always higher if smears were evaluated according to PMNs to epithelial cell ratio, and the highest values were observed in specimens collected from CB and LVL. The evaluation of cytological smears based on counting PMNs in relation to epithelial cells was a better method for diagnosis of endometritis than counting the number of PMNs per high power microscopic field (k value 0.07-0.47 vs. 0.00). The agreement of the diagnosis of endometritis between the three techniques of the collection was from fair to poor and between the different criteria adopted to evaluate smears was always poor. However, the agreement of the diagnosis of endometritis by the microbial culture was moderate between the three techniques of the collection (k value 0.55-0.58).


2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Serrano-Gomez ◽  
Gabriel Burgos-Angulo ◽  
Daniela Camila Niño-Vargas ◽  
María Eugenia Niño ◽  
María Eugenia Cárdenas ◽  
...  

Purpose: Over 170 biomarkers are being investigated regarding their prognostic and diagnostic accuracy in sepsis in order to find new tools to reduce morbidity and mortality. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their inhibitors have been recently studied as promising new prognostic biomarkers in patients with sepsis. This study is aimed at determining the utility of several cutoff points of these biomarkers to predict mortality in patients with sepsis. Materials and Methods: A multicenter, prospective, analytic cohort study was performed in the metropolitan area of Bucaramanga, Colombia. A total of 289 patients with sepsis and septic shock were included. MMP-9, MMP-2, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP-1), TIMP-2, TIMP-1/MMP-9 ratio, and TIMP-2/MMP-2 ratio were determined in blood samples. Value ranges were correlated with mortality to estimate sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, and area under the receiving operating characteristic curve. Results: Sensitivity ranged from 33.3% (MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio) to 60.6% (TIMP-1) and specificity varied from 38.8% (MMP-2/TIMP-2 ratio) to 58.5% (TIMP-1). As for predictive values, positive predictive value range was from 17.5% (MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio) to 70.4% (MMP-2/TIMP-2 ratio), whereas negative predictive values were between 23.2% (MMP-2/TIMP-2 ratio) and 80.9% (TIMP-1). Finally, area under the curve scores ranged from 0.31 (MMP-9/TIMP-1 ratio) to 0.623 (TIMP-1). Conclusion: Although TIMP-1 showed higher sensitivity, specificity, and negative predictive value, with a representative population sample, we conclude that none of the evaluated biomarkers had significant predictive value for mortality.


BMC Cancer ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Blanca Murillo-Ortiz ◽  
Abraham Hernández-Ramírez ◽  
Talia Rivera-Villanueva ◽  
David Suárez-García ◽  
Mario Murguía-Pérez ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Some evidence has shown that malignant breast tumours have lower electrical impedance than surrounding normal tissues. Electrical impedance could be used as an indicator for breast cancer detection. The purpose of our study was to analyse the sensitivity and specificity of electrical impedance mammography (EIM) and its implementation for the differential diagnosis of pathological lesions of the breast, either alone or in combination with mammography/ultrasound, in 1200 women between 25 and 70 years old. Methods This study is a prospective, cross-sectional epidemiological observational study of serial screening. The women were invited to participate and signed a consent letter. Impedance imaging of the mammary gland was evaluated with the computerized mammography equipment of MEIK electroimpedance v.5.6. (0.5 mA, 50 kHz), developed and manufactured by PKF SIM-Technika®. The successful identification of breast cancer along with the sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of EIM were determined as follows: % sensitivity; % specificity; % positive predictive value (PPV); and % negative predictive value (NPV). Results EIM had a sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 96%; the positive predictive value was 12%, and the negative predictive value was 99%. Seven cases were biopsy confirmed cancers. Significant correlations between the electrical conductivity index and body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.04) and patient age were observed (p = 0.01). We also observed that the average conductivity distribution increased according to age group (p = 0.001). We used the chi-squared test to assess the interactions between percent density and BMI (normal < 25 kg/m2 (n = 310), overweight 25–29.9 kg/m2 (n = 418) and obese ≥30 (n = 437)) (p <  0.05). The patients with a diagnosis of mammary carcinoma had a BMI of 35.51 kg/m2. Conclusions Our results demonstrate that the use of monofrequency electrical impedance mammography (EIM) in the detection of breast cancer had a sensitivity and specificity of 85 and 96%, respectively. These findings may support future research in the early detection of breast cancer. EIM is a non-radiation method that may also be used as a screening method for young women with dense breasts and a high risk of developing breast cancer.


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