
Blood test identifies Alzheimer's with 86% accuracy and differentiates forms - dtawfik1
http://www.cnn.com/2017/09/04/health/alzheimers-blood-test-study/index.html
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Halved
I never know how to interpret accuracy ratings for tests. If I told everyone I
ran into on the street that they did not have Lou Gehrig's disease, regardless
of any testing, I would still be 99.993% accurate. Can someone shed some
insight on what 86% means?

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Aron
Yeah, I think it be comes intuitive as soon as you break it into % false
positive and % false negative. Then, after you have test results in hand, you
know your odds. In order to use the information from the test, you have to
branch on your conclusion given the result of the test.

edit: then I read the link, and apparently both numbers are basically
coincidentally the same here.

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foxyv
Info on the 86%

> The researchers say that using the test, they were able to identify
> Alzheimer's patients with up to 86% sensitivity and specificity.
> (Sensitivity refers true positives identified by the test, while specificity
> refers to true negatives.)

