Sensitivity

This is the probability of a positive test result from patients with disease a/a+c. Sensitivity of a test gives values from 0 to 1 (0-100%) and tells us how the test captures the presence of the reference condition in the body.

${\begin{aligned}{\text{sensitivity}}&={\frac {\text{number of true positives}}{{\text{number of true positives}}+{\text{number of false negatives}}}}\\\\&={\text{probability of a positive test given that the patient is ill}}\end{aligned}}$

For example, if he had a mammography screening test for breast cancer with 100% sensitivity, it would mean that all women who had breast cancer, the tumour was actually detected. We have a group of 4 women - Lucy, Jane, Cathie and Lenka. Lucy has breast cancer. All women undergo the screening mammography. It detects Lucy and Jane as positive. Lucy is really positive. Jane is a false positive. Cathie and Lenka are actually negative. Nobody is falsely negative. When you enter the values into the formula above, we find that the test showed 100% sensitivity.

Test	Disease +	Healthy-	Total
+	a	b	a+b
-	c	d	c+d
Total	a+c	b+d	n

 For more information see Requirements at Examination Methods.

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Related Articles

• Specificity

Bibliography

• BENCKO, Vladimír. Epidemiologie, výukové texty pro studenty. 2nd edition. Karolinum, 2002. ISBN 80-246-0383-7..

• BENCKO, Vladimír. Biomedicínská statistika. 1st edition. Karolinum, 2003. ISBN 80-246-0763-8.

• KUPKA, Karel. Nukleární medicína. 1st edition. Karolinum, 2007. ISBN 978-80-903584-9-2.