A review of sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios: evaluating the utility of the electrocardiogram as a screening tool in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Appropriate interpretation of a screening test's validity poses a challenge to the clinician. The purpose of this review is to revisit the terms sensitivity, specificity, likelihood ratio, and pre- and posttest probability and their application to the clinical setting. For illustration, we use a recently published article in the American Journal of Cardiology that investigates the false negative rate of electrocardiograms in athletic preparticipation screening for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.