What is it about?

It is unlikely to find a highly sensitive and specific test at the same time in diagnosing aggressive periodontitis (AgP). Therefore, we looked how the principle of ruling in or out a disease by using highly specific or sensitive tests respectively, could be applied in the case of aggressive periodontitis.

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Why is it important?

Diagnostic skills are about modifying prior probabilities. If a patient is suspected to be in the AgP class, one would like to rule in AgP by ordering a highly specific test. If a 100% specific test fails to identify a case as chronic periodontitis (CP), then the case is very likely of the AgP type. By the same reasoning, if a patient is suspected to be in the CP class, one would like to rule out AgP by ordering a highly sensitive test.

Perspectives

Implementing sensitivity and specificity of tests in diagnosing aggressive periodontitis, can be the simplest of all techniques available in our armamentarium.

Dr Georgios Papantonopoulos
University of Patras

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Aggressive Periodontitis Defined by Recursive Partitioning Analysis of Immunologic Factors, The Journal of Periodontology, July 2013, American Academy of Periodontology (AAP),
DOI: 10.1902/jop.2012.120444.
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