What is an acceptable sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV) and positive predictive value (PPV) for a diagnostic tool for periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs)?

What is an acceptable sensitivity, specificity, negative predictive value (NPV) and positive predictive value (PPV) for a diagnostic tool for periprosthetic joint infections (PJIs)?

Authors: Noam Shohat, Susan Odum

RECOMMENDATION: The validity of a diagnostic tool is traditionally measured by sensitivity, specificity, PPV and NPV. A perfect diagnostic tool would be able to correctly classify 100% of patients with PJIs as infected and 100% of aseptic patients as non-infected. Without a perfect test available, we are left to balance between sensitivity and specificity; increasing one would reduce the other. To reduce the rates of false positives and negatives it is extremely important to take into account the pretest probability for infection, derived from patient risk factors, clinical examination and any other examinations available at the point of assessment. Table 1. Variety of diagnostic tools for PJI

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Moderate

DELEGATE VOTE: Agree: 79%, Disagree: 10%, Abstain: 11% (Super Majority, Strong Consensus)

am04

%d bloggers like this: