What is the name (or a good name) for studies on diagnostic tests, the ones
in which suspect patients are prospectively recruited and subjected to both
the test under study and a gold standard?
I used to liken them to cohort studies, but on the "Users' guides to the
medical literature" (part 1A1) they are indicated as <Cross sectional
analytic studies> (whatever that means).
I do realize that although the patients are recruited prospectively, these
studies are cross sectional in nature. So "Cross sectional study on
incident suspect cases" could be an option? Except when the gold standard
actually requires a long follow up to rule out the disease, which
complicates the matters...
I need a simple and logic-looking name to tell to my students, who are
mostly epidemiophobic and don't like much complexity or uncertainty in what
they learn.
thanks,
Piersante Sestini
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