Mark-Steven Howe looks at the diagnostic test accuracy of Covid-19 antibody tests in this opinion piece.
[read the full story...]Dentistry, Diagnostic Test Accuracy (DTA) and the Covid-19 Antibody Test
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Dental pulp testing methods: which is best?
This review of dental pulp test accuracy included 28 studies. While the findings suggest that laser doppler flowmetry and pulse oximitery are the most accurate the quality of the available studies is low.
[read the full story...]Panoramic radiography for predicting inferior alveolar nerve injury after third molar surgery
This review of panoramic radiography for IAN injury prediction after third molar surgery included 8 studies calculating key diagnostic data fro the 7 classical used signs. Values were to low to rule out post-operative damage before surgery but some siigns could rule in risk of injury.
[read the full story...]Cognitive tests for dementia: MMSE, Mini-Cog and ACE-R
Akshay Nair explores the results of a systematic review of cognitive tests for dementia and mild cognitive impairment, which focuses on the MMSE, Mini-Cog, ACE-R and MoCA instruments. Along the way he explains how diagnostic tests work and how sensitivity and specificity are useful measures to get your head around.
[read the full story...]Rise of the machine learning algorithm: the future of diagnosing schizophrenia?
Samei Huda reviews a meta-analysis of multivariate pattern recognition studies, which aims to detect neuroimaging biomarkers for schizophrenia.
[read the full story...]Can early improvement be used to predict later response to antipsychotics in schizophrenia?
Tracey Roberts summarises a recent diagnostic test review, which suggests that early improvement can act as a predictor of later response to antipsychotics in schizophrenia.
[read the full story...]Does panoramic radiography predict nerve injury after third molar extraction?
This review included 9 studies assessing the predictive value of panoramic radiography on inferior alveolar nerve (IAN) injury after third molar extraction. Results suggest that darkening of the root had a high specificity in predicting IAN injury.
[read the full story...]Radiographic caries detection is highly accurate for cavitated proximal lesions
This review of 117 studies, which were mainly in vitro studies (93), found radiographic caries detection to be highly accurate for cavitated proximal lesions and also suitable to detect dentine caries lesions.
[read the full story...]Caries detection: visual detection has good accuracy
This review included 102 studies the majority (77%) being laboratory-based findings that visual inspection had good caries detection accuracy in primary and permanent teeth, with a trend for higher specificity than sensitivity.
[read the full story...]Dental screening: a role for hygiene-therapists?
This study compared the diagnostic accuracy of dental screening by hygiene-therapists with dentists. The results show that they could be used to screen for caries and periodontal disease. This could allow for a change in the traditional model of dental care seen in the UK.
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