The Four Prominent Indicators of Diagnostic Testing: Consistency among their Values Reported in Saudi Medical Journals

Abstract

We provide a novel method for validating any purported set of the four most prominent indicators of diagnostic testing (Sensitivity, Specificity, Positive Predictive Value, and Negative Predictive Value), by observing that these indicators constitute three rather than four independent quantities. This observation has virtually been unheard of in the open medical literature. We defined two functions, which serve as consistency criteria, since each of them checks consistency for any set of four numerical values claimed to be the four basic diagnostic indicators. Most of the data we came across in various Saudi medical journals met our criteria for consistency, but in a few cases, there were obvious unexplained blunders. We relate our present findings to the more general issue of detection and ramifications of flawed, fabricated or wrong data. We observe that the research field handling the detection of flawed data is still in its infancy, and hope that this field will reach maturity very soon.