Bayes Theorem and diagnostic tests with application to patients with suspected angina

patients with suspected angina often undergo a variety of noninvasive tests to confirm or exclude the presence of obstructive coronary artery disease. such tests, however, are not always able to accurately identify patients with or without disease. This limitation of these tests gives rise to the concept of false positive (a positive test in a patient who does not have the condition) and false negative (a negative test in a patient who does have the condition) results. a basic understanding of the statistics of diagnostic tests is necessary to enable the clinician to select an appropriate test and interpret the result, whether positive or negative. The purpose of this review is to present a summary of the statistics of diagnostic tests with application to the investigation of patients with suspected angina.