Medical Diagnostic Tests: A Review of Test Anatomy, Phases, and Statistical Treatment of Data

Table 2

Anatomy of the role of a diagnostic test.

Role	What?	Example (ref.)
Confirmation/exclusion	Confirm (rule-in) or exclude (rule-out) the disease	Brain natriuretic peptide: diagnostic for left ventricular dysfunction [33]
Triage	An initial test that could be rapidly applied and have a small number of false-positive results	Renal Doppler resistive index: hemorrhagic shock in polytrauma patients [34]
Monitoring	A repeated test that allows assessing the efficacy of an intervention	Glycohemoglobin (A1c Hb): overall glycemic control of patients with diabetes [35]
Prognosis	Assessment of an outcome or the disease progression	PET/CT scan in the identification of distant metastasis in cervical and endometrial cancer [36]
Screening	Presence of the disease in apparently asymptomatic persons	Cytology test: screening of cervical uterine cancer [37]