Diagnosis and Interpretation of Diagnostic Findings

I.Cell A of the table contains the cases that the test identifies as being positive (or diseased) that actually are positive (i.e. confirmed by the ‘gold standard’). These cases are termed true positives. II. Cell B contains all cases for which a positive finding from the diagnostic test is present, but where the actual condition is negative. Therefore, this cell denotes false positives. III. Cell C includes the cases identified by the diagnostic test as not being diseased, but actually are diseased, as determined by the ‘gold standard’. Findings in this cell are termed false negatives. IV. Cell D, includes true negatives, where the diagnostic test accurately identifies non-diseased cases that are truly negative as confirmed by the ‘gold standard’. A perfect diagnostic test would result in all cases being assigned to cells A or D with no false positives (cell B) or false negatives (cell C).