Volume 10, Number 1—January 2004
Research
Evaluating Detection and Diagnostic Decision Support Systems for Bioterrorism Response
Figure 1
![Effect of sensitivity, specificity, and pretest probability on posttest probability of anthrax’s being present. Upper curves show the posttest probability of anthrax’s being present after a positive detection or diagnostic test result. Lower curves show the posttest probability of anthrax’s being present after a negative detection or diagnostic test result. Separate curves are drawn for two diagnostic tests described in the text: one with 99% sensitivity and 99% specificity (thick) and another w](/eid/images/03-0243-F1.jpg)
Figure 1. Effect of sensitivity, specificity, and pretest probability on posttest probability of anthrax’s being present. Upper curves show the posttest probability of anthrax’s being present after a positive detection or diagnostic test result. Lower curves show the posttest probability of anthrax’s being present after a negative detection or diagnostic test result. Separate curves are drawn for two diagnostic tests described in the text: one with 99% sensitivity and 99% specificity (thick) and another with 96% sensitivity and 94% specificity (thin). The arrow marks a pretest probability of disease of 0.0014, which relates to the example described in the text.
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